Union news
Blacklisting victory
The Unite general union has won a total of £1.9 million compensation on behalf of 53 trade union members after major construction firms admitted they had been unlawfully blacklisted and denied work.
The firms were also forced to pay the workers’ legal costs of £20 million and, in what Unite called “a legal breakthrough”, a further £230,000 into a fund that will be used to retrain the trade unionists.
The firms are Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci Plc. They have paid out £35 million compensation to more than 1,200 blacklisted workers in the last three years.