Labor pledges to strengthen ban on blacklisting of union members in huge improvement in workers' rights

Exclusive:

As part of 'biggest improvement in workers' rights in a generation,' Deputy Leader Angela Rayner set to announce outdated regulations would be updates to cover sneaky new regulations. rogue boss tactics

Labor Deputy Leader Angela Rayner will make the announcement in her speech to the TUC conference on Tuesday (

Image: Dave Nelson)

Labor has pledged to strengthen laws banning companies from blacklisting union workers.

As part of 'biggest improvement in workers' rights in a generation,' Deputy Chief Angela Rayner set to announce outdated regulations would be updated to cover rogue bosses' underhanded new tactics .

“Blacklisting doesn’t just destroy livelihoods, it destroys lives. This is a destructive practice that leaves people out of work and often facing poverty,” she told this newspaper ahead of a keynote speech to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton on Tuesday . The current rules were introduced in 2009, after the Consulting Association (TCA) scandal which saw more than 40 construction companies use their services to blacklist more than 3,200 workers and refuse them work.

Employers could be fined up to £500,000 if they are found to have used blacklists to exclude union members. But blacklisting is incredibly difficult to prove due to its secretive nature.

Ms Rayner was pictured outside Blackpool Tower during her tour of industrial centers and coastal towns in the North (

Picture:

Dave Nelson)

There are fears that unscrupulous employers could use AI technology to 'guess' whether potential employers are members of a union - something that would be banned under Labor's reforms. And this shake-up would close a loophole that allows bosses to “outsource the dirty work” of blacklisting to third-party companies. It would also give employment tribunals the power to order companies to destroy any lists they have - as well as any digital copies to ensure the lists cannot be hidden and reused.

Dirk McPherson, a 67-year-old retired welder from Surrey, started as an apprentice at the age of 15.