Carillion ‘ruined my life’- The secret blacklisting war with union activist
The UK’s second-largest construction company, employing around 20,000 people in the UK, buckled under the weight of a whopping £1.5bn debt pile.
Dave Smith, a successful Engineer who had the pick of engineering jobs throughout London, was employed by Carillion. In 1998 he was driving a 4 x 4 vehicle but by 2000 he could not even get a job as an Engineer, despite the longest building boom this country has ever known. He even stopped receiving calls from employment agencies.
All this because he was brave enough to complain about the dangers of asbestos on construction sites and attempted to improve health and safety conditions through union activism. Sadly, for Dave this resulted in selling personal belongings, defaulting mortgage payments and borrowing from friends and family.
The Carillion blacklisting scandal was aired on BBC Radio 4. The company had been paying The Consulting Association to keep files on Dave and circulate a blacklist, with his name, among 40 construction companies. The blacklist had thousands of names on it, meaning Carillion had been complicit in one of the biggest industrial scandals in British history. Dave was one of the “lucky” ones to be affected – unfortunately for others this outrageous scandal left hundreds of workers homeless, without family and some sadly took their own lives.
Dave’s ongoing battle with Carillion meant he was able to help found the Blacklisted Support Group and take Carillion to Court but following the demise of Carillion Dave and many others who suffered at the hands of the company may never see the directors face legal action.
Not a penny of public money should be given to the bosses of Carillion -if the government has another magic money tree hidden away somewhere it should bail out the NHS – not Carillion or their bankers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42853895
Rizzwana Bashir – Trainee Solicitor
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