Carillion chief executive Richard Howson has apologised for the company’s role in blacklisting activities and promised it will never happen again.
A total of £10m has been paid out in compensation so far to building workers who were blacklisted for their union membership. The final compensation bill could reach £75m, according to Unite the Union.
Richard Howson, in an interview with Sky TV, said: “With Carillion, we apologised for those activities three or four years ago. It was a subsidiary of Carillion which was sold in 2004, and the issues are now resolved."
He added: “Certainly for Carillion there is no way those activities would take place going forward.”
However, speaking to Construction Manager, Howard Beckett, director of legal services for Unite, said: “For Unite members, this was an extremely contentious litigation, everything had to be extracted from the construction companies, nothing was given in good faith and had to be got under duress from litigation.”
The blacklist was used by some of the biggest construction firms, including Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska and Vinci.
It resulted in hundreds of workers losing their jobs and being unable to secure new ones after being deemed troublemakers while raising legitimate workplace issues.
The compensation deal was agreed with Unite, which represented 97 workers, who will receive payouts of between £25,000 and £200,000. The agreement was reached ahead of a planned High Court hearing.
For any construction manager time and money are crucial targets to achieve a successful build on time & on budget. I have experienced awkward Union workers who are intent on disrupting a project, either for the sake of it or usually to earn more money, hence delaying the project and escalating costs. Why would any construction company want to employ such workers! Successful construction relies on teamwork, not activists.
The above comment reflects a Nineteenth Century mindset that does not recognise the rights of workers or their representatives to raise legitimate concerns over Health, Safety and Welfare. It is a failure of management when they they try to dismiss any such concerns as “activism”. Good managers should always be open to challenge. The industry does not need dinosaurs in the 21st Century.
So, because you have ‘experienced awkward Union workers’, all Union workers are the same? Consultants can often delay project progress and escalate costs, as can poor project management. Blaming one part of the ‘team’ was and is never the answer.
Extremist trade union and wild cat strike demands can very often drive investors away and thus bring about growing unemployment in the construction sector! However just what authority can step in to broker a deal which is “fair” to both parties including the investing client?