Own up, clean up, pay up

Procurement officers and councillors in Scotland are being asked by the GMB general union to exclude Carillion and other building firms from tendering for any further public sector contracts in Scotland until they compensate blacklisted workers.

The union has pointed to the £200 million increase in Carillion’s merger bid with rival Balfour Beatty compared with the miserly compensation offer of less than £3 million each from the two companies to workers whose lives have been ruined by being blacklisted by them. Both companies are also hugely profitable, with underlying pre-tax profits in 2013 of £361.7 million for the two companies.

The Scottish government has recently written to Scottish construction firms seeking their help in publicising its guidelines on blacklisting in relation to public sector contracts.

The Scottish government said: “Guidance makes it clear that firms which have engaged in blacklisting have committed an act of grave professional misconduct and should be excluded from public procurement, unless they can demonstrate appropriate remedial action.”

www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/balfour-bid-shows-carillion-lack-of-priority-on-blacklisting-compensation