THE EXISTENCE of a second secret construction industry blacklist has been revealed by a British Government watchdog.
Details of up to 500 workers are understood to have been kept in the newly-revealed database.
They are believed to have worked on three major projects plagued by industrial action — the Jubilee Line extension, the Royal Opera House refurbishment and the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kent.
News of a second blacklist follows public outrage at the discovery of a 3,200-person database held by clandestine organisation The Consulting Association.
It was used by some of Britain’s biggest construction companies to keep “troublemakers” out of work.
But many victims claim they were blacklisted for raising health and safety concerns.
The existence of another blacklist came to light in a letter from David Smith, deputy commissioner at the Information Commissioner’s Office, to a panel of MPs investigating blacklisting.
Although little is known about the new database at present, because of the strong presence of Irish workers in the construction industry, it is likely to name scores of Irish workers.
In the letter, seen by The Irish Post, Mr Smith says the ICO has possession of faxes to and from Haden Young, then a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty, “which contain the names of what appear to be individual construction workers and their NI numbers”.
He added that the ICO also has “a list of nine contact names and addresses of what appear to be individual managers within different construction companies”.
That is joined by “a small sample of names and NI numbers of individual construction workers on what are termed the Pfizer, Royal Opera House and Jubilee Line lists”.
Balfour Beatty declined to comment on the revelation.
