Blacklisting: Smith “grinning like a raver”
The Employment Appeals Tribunal in Blackfriars (Tues 26th Feb) decided that construction giant Carillion must face human rights claims over its role in the construction industry blacklisting scandal. Justice Singh ordered that a High Court judge should hear a 2 day hearing at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the case of Dave Smith v Carillion.
Mr Smith, an engineer from Essex, was repeatedly dismissed and refused work once his name appeared on the illegal Consulting Association blacklist after he had raised concerns about asbestos, poor toilet facilities and contaminated waste on London and Essex building sites controlled by companies within the Carilion Group.
At Mr. Smith’s Employment Tribunal in January 2012 the companies openly admitted in court to blacklisting him because he was a trade union safety representative on their building sites but he still lost the case on the legal technicality that he was not directly employed by the companies but via an employment agency.
Mr Smith was originally been denied the opportunity to appeal but his lawyer John Hendy QC argued that the decision was potentially in violation of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights – Article 8 (the right to privacy) and Article 11 (the right to freedom of association).
Dave Smith said:“Blacklisted workers have always argued that we have been the victims of a major human rights conspiracy.
Its time that Carillion and the other multi-nationals who deliberately set out to ruin our working lives to face justice.
A judge has finally decided that these human rights violations need to be answered in court.
This is a great decision – I am grinning like a raver”
Dave Smith is represented by John Hendy QC, David Renton and Declan Owens from the Free Representation Unit.
