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  • UK: Blacklisted builders launch mass legal action against Sir Robert McAlpine - Workers branded 'troublemakers' on shadowy industry database make multimillion pound claim against construction giant

UK: Blacklisted builders launch mass legal action against Sir Robert McAlpine - Workers branded 'troublemakers' on shadowy industry database make multimillion pound claim against construction giant

27 July 2012

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"Workers blacklisted by the construction industry over more than three decades have launched a high court claim against industry giant Sir Robert McAlpine, the Tory donor and builder of the Olympic Stadium, for conspiring with other firms to keep them out of work.... The claim involves 86 of 3,400 workers in the files of the Consulting Association, a covert organisation paid by big names in the industry to collect damaging information on workers regarded as leftwing or troublesome. The files included information about trade union membership, relationships, friendships and political views, along with surveillance intelligence.

"Dave Smith, 46, an engineer who had a 36-page file against his name and was repeatedly victimised for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos. The Information Commissioner's Office said at Smith's tribunal that it believed some of the information held by the covert organisation and accessible to companies that subscribed to the service "could only have been supplied by the police or the security services".

See: Full article (The Observer, link)

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