Statement by Managing Director

The following statement was given on oath at our employment tribunal by a former Managing Director, Alan Wainwright regarding the blacklisting in the construction industry. The statement is now public record so can be produced anywhere and the contents went uncontested by the employers legal council, in fact the director of Logic Control admitted on oath there was a blacklist in the possesion of the employers association. The statement also explains the source of the blacklist and how it is operated.

Alan Wainwrights Statement from the dock word for word

Over the last thirteen years I’ve held three very senior labour positions within the UK Construction Industry (mechanical & electrical). In 1993 I was recruited by the now Executive Director of Carillion PLC (formerly Tarmac), Roger Robinson to set up their in house mechanical & electrical labour agency NCS. Two years later, Roger promoted me to the position of National Labour Manager for their mechanical & electrical services business, Crown House Eng. I left the company in 2000 to join Emcor PLCs mechanical & electrical subsidiary, Drake & Scull Eng as business Improvement Director. In 2004 I joined Balfour Beatty PLCs subsidiary, Haden Young Ltd as Regional Production & Resourse Manager for the Midlands & Southern Region. I believe the certain UK construction companies & their mechanical & electrical subsidiaries operate a blacklisting procedure to ensure certain electrical operatives do not gain employment on their projects. This is based on procedures I have undertaken in the workplace in previous roles & information that has come to my direct attention.

I think it is also important to set out what I believe a blacklist to be. In my opinion, a blacklist is a list of people (held by a third party or exchanged between companies) that a company or group of companies would not employ for reasons that they cannot legally or lawfully keep on their personnel files, databases or records. I first became aware of blacklisting in 1997 when I was employed by Carillion PLC. I was told by a Mr Gorman, Crown House HR Manager that Carillion used the services of an external consultant called Iain or Ian Kerr to ensure that certain workers did not gain employment on their projects. Mr Gorman went on to explain that Mr Kerr provided this service to a number of other high profile construction companies & had collated a list of names from each of these companies over a period with a view to ensuring those on the lists did not gain employment with other companies. Mr Gorman also said that these companies were now looking to extend this process to their mechanical & electrical sudsidiaries, divisions and sub contractors and that Carillion had taken the decision that Crown House would form part of this. As the majority of Crown houses recruitment was conducted via labour agencies to supplement the core workforce, the process was to be introduced via my central labour department as I had recently centralised a number of processes including the recuitment and control of agency operatives. Mr Gorman concluded that Mr Kerr would make contact with me to make the necessary arrangements. Mr Kerr did make contact & we met at Carillions offices in Manchester.

In the meeting, Mr Kerr reiterated what Mr Gorman had told me. He managed a small company (which he called the consulting company) which collated these lists from the construction companies and conducted the relevant checks when so requested. Mr Kerr explained that Carillion were one of the member companies and I specifically recall him mentioning Bovis as another. (My first experience of working as an electrician in London was on the Bovis site at Broadgate and I immediately made this connection when Mr Kerr mentioned Bovis. ) Mr Kerr informed me that the company functioned and was funded in the following way. Each member company would forward to him a list of prospective employees or agency labour workers they were considering to engage. Mr Kerr would then check names against the lists he had collated from the other member companies. (Mr Kerr showed me lists of operatives & I recall there being about 100 to 150 names on these at the time. ) Mr Kerr informed me that he charged member companies 50p per name checked and reported back verbally any operatives that were not to be employed or supplied by agencies. Mr Kerr explained the criteria for rejection had been agreed with member companies but did not explain this. Mr Kerr also explained that to protect his identity, he would only ever communicate the results of his checks to one individual contact in each company, which was usually a senoir HR person. Mr Kerr reiterated what Mr Gorman had said about extending this process to the mechanical & electrical subsidiaries, divisions & sub contractors of member companies. Mr Kerr said this service was only in the infancy in respect of the M&E sector but that the lists would soon grow as more M&E subsidiaries came on board. We concluded our meeting & Crown House introduced the procedure for vetting all new recruits and agency workers via MR Kerr from that date on.

I joined Drake & Scull Eng in 2000 as business Improvement Director. During this employment the regional labour managers and I were provided with lists of electricians employed by Balfour Kilpatrick at the Royal Opera House & Pfizer projects during & prior to 2000 with a view to preventing some of the electricians from gaining employment on future projects. I now operate a website which investigates the blacklisting issues, particularly in regards to my former employer Haden Young Ltd, their parent company, Balfour Beatty Plc and another subsidiary, Balfour Kilpatrick. I brought an employment tribunal against my former employer Haden Young in Nov 2006 for constructive dismissal based on the way I was treated after making protected disclosure about fraud & a cover up in the business. At this hearing under cross examination, Peter Barnes, a director of Haden Young Ltd admitted that the company used an external organisation that kept intelligence on certain operatives who were deemed to be troublemakers. This statement is consistent with my previous knowledge of the organisation, which as stated, I believe is headed by a person called Iain Kerr.

I made contact with Mr Steve Acheson in March 2006, who had been involved in the industrial dispute at the Balfour Kilpatrick Pfizer project on health & safety grounds and was one of a number of employees who were sacked for taking action. Mr Acheson & others later brought claims in the employment tribunal, Acheson & others v Balfour Kilpatrisk in 2004 in which all claiments with more than a years service were sucessful in their claim for unfair dismissal. I am aware that Mr Acheson was able to gain employment via a sub contractor on the Manchester Royal Infirmary project during the Christmas break in 2005. The majority of main contractors personnel/HR depts close down for the break & therefore the blacklisting checks would not have been done. I am also aware that Mr Acheson was dismissed from employment with the respondent on the 24th Feb 2006 and subsequently reinstated by the respondent on the 27th Feb 2006. From talking to Mr Acheson after the dismissal it was clear that Mr Acheson believed he had been dismissed because he was blacklisted.

I therefore spoke to Steven Johnson, an electrical engineer for the respondent company on the 21st April 2006. Mr Johnson informed me that he was approached by Rob Macintyre of TAC Satchwell, who informed him that he had been instructed by John Lawrence of Bovis (the main contractor) to have Mr Acheson removed from the project following discussions with Balfour Kilpatrick about Mr Achesons past involvement in disputes with them. Mr Johnson also informed me that he rejected Mr Macintyres reasons for removing Mr Acheson from the project at the time, stating that he was very happy with Mr Achesons work & there was no reason for him to leave. He went onto inform me that Mr Macintyre was insistent. I therefore contacted Mr Macintyre of TAC that day to discuss this with him and recieved a no comment, followed by the dial tone.

The following is an extract from a post on my website:

A big thank you goes out to Steve Johnson, the electrical engineer for sub contractor Logic on the Manchester Royal Infirmary project at the time of the removal of electrician, Steve Acheson from the project (24th Feb 2006) Mr Acheson had been able to gain employment on the MRI project, after being taken on during the christmas break by Logic, a sub contractor to TAC on the project. I recently spoke to Mr Johnson on 21st April 2006 & he informed me that he was approached by Rob Macintyre of TAC, who informed him that he had been instructed by John Lawrence of Bovis (the main contractor) to have Mr Acheson removed from the project following discussions with Balfour Kilpatrick about Mr Achesons past involvement in disputes with them.

Mr Johnson also informed me that he rejected Mr Macintyres reasons for removing Mr Acheson from the project at the time, stating that he was happy with Mr Achesons work and there was no reason for him to leave. He went on to inform me that Mr Macintyre was insistent and Mr Acheson was later removed from the project. I therefore contacted Mr Macintyre of TAC later that day to discuss this with him and recieved a no comment, followed by a dial tone, which speaks volumes in itself.

I understand that Mr Acheson and his two colleagues Mr Bowker & Mr Jones were both subsequently dismissed by the respondent on 5th May 2006 & the reason given by the respondent was redundancy.

Once again I must state this is uncontested evidence stated on oath in a court of law and is also now a public document that can be distributed by trade unionists for debate. We intend to take a civil action against rogue employers who conspire against trade union members. For more info Tel:07950780070.

Alan Wainwrights website is www.blacklistedelectricians.blogspot.com