THE GMB has called a meeting in Stafford on November 13th to mobilise opposition to the outsourcing of Staffordshire Education Support Services (ESS) and to the bid by Carillion, until they compensate the 224 workers they blacklisted across the UK.
Staffordshire County Council are tendering to set up a new joint business with a private sector contractor for 400 schools for school meals and catering, cleaning, property management, grounds maintenance, building maintenance, music tuition, teacher training and ICT.
The tender also covers Outdoor Education, Staffordshire Performing Arts, the School Governors Service, Education Transformation, Staffordshire Learning Technologies, and the Learning and Development Arm.
The preferred bidder for this ESS contract is due to be notified on 30 November 2012, with Cabinet decision on contract award in February 2013 and with the contract awarded in March 2013 (subject to Cabinet decision) with a start date of 1st April 2013.
The lower end of the contract value is £700m with the total contract value potentially being £2bn.
Unless this is stopped 5,000 staff will be outsourced to a new employer from 1st April 2013.
The public meeting details are as follows:
6pm-8pm, Tuesday 13th November, Lecture Theatre Room BE304, Broad Eye Building, Stafford College, Earl Street, Stafford ST16 2QR.
Speakers include: Dave Smith, blacklisted by Carillion; Ron Clarke from the Blacklist Support Group; Staffordshire Labour Councillors; Carole Vallelly, GMB officer; and members in dispute with Carillion after 21 days of strike action at Swindon PFI hospital, also Kameljeet Jandu, GMB National Equalities Officer; and Justin Bowden, GMB National Officer.
Last month Paul Farrelly MP called for bidding to be halted on conflict of interest grounds.
This was after Phil Cresswell, who led this ESS outsourcing for Staffordshire, quit the council in September to become business development director for Carillion, one of three firms picked to compete for the contract.
Carillion’s involvement with blacklisting came to light when, in 2009, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) seized a database held by the Consulting Association of 3,213 construction workers used by 44 companies to vet new recruits and keep out of employment trade union and health and safety activists.
It is not known how many Staffordshire workers were blacklisted as only 198 of those on the blacklist know they are on it, leaving 3,015 unaware of this.
In June 2012 the GMB published a report showing that blacklisting by Carillion was not something isolated or rare.
The report estimates that in one quarter Carillion checked 2,776 names with the Consulting Association, and in the period from October 1999 to April 2004 it estimates that Carillion checked at least 14,724 names.
The GMB report: ‘BLACKLISTING – illegal corporate bullying endemic, systemic and deep-rooted in Carillion and other companies’, will be sent to all Staffordshire Councillors and school governors.
The Information Commissioner confirmed that 224 construction workers from around the UK were victims of blacklisting by Carillion.
These names, on the files of the blacklisting body The Consulting Association, were released in the course of an Employment Tribunal earlier this year when Carillion was accused of blacklisting a construction worker in London.
After a long GMB campaign Carillion finally apologised but have not offered to compensate workers they blacklisted.
Richard Howson, Carillion Chief Executive, said (on 25th October) that ‘Carillion is led by strong values and we take our commitment to transparency and openness extremely seriously which is why we are sorry that one of our former subsidiary businesses, Crown House Engineering, used the Consulting Association’s database to reference individuals.
‘This was not consistent with the high standards of behaviour that we set for ourselves, based on our core values.’
During the still unresolved GMB dispute with Carillion at the Swindon PFI Hospital, where there have been 21 days of strike action over shake downs and cover ups, it emerged that Liz Keates, the Carillion HR manager dealing with it, was the company main link to the Consulting Association.
Chris Humphreys, GMB regional officer, said: ‘GMB oppose outsourcing of ESS whoever wins the bid. Bidding should be halted due to conflicts of interests after the top manager changed sides.
Parents and staff in Staffordshire should not have to do business with a company like Carillion that did business with the blacklisting body Consulting Association until they purge their guilt.
‘Thus a bid from Carillion is unwelcome until they properly acknowledge the vile history of blacklisting of companies that make up the group and compensate the workers whose lives they blighted.
‘It has taken years of campaigning to get companies like Carillion to drop their denials and cover-ups and apologise.
‘However, Carillion are in denial when they say their involvement in blacklisting was limited to Crown House.
‘The Blacklist Support Group makes clear that Carillion involvement with the Consulting Association blacklist included parts of their organization such as Crown House, Schal International, SkyBlue Employment Agency, Tarmac andJohn Mowlem as well as Carillion itself.
Carillion will be told by Staffordshire people that blacklisting 224 workers and supplying information to a database that was used to blacklist 3,213 workers till 2009 is far from a minor matter.’
• In a Carillion blacklisting hearing at Manchester Employment Tribunal in March 2012 (Case No 2405634/09) Mr Wainright, an ex-Carillion HR manager, said in his witness statement: ‘In my opinion a blacklist is a list of people (held by a third party or exchanged between companies) that a company or group of companies would not employ for reasons that they cannot legally or lawfully keep on their personnel files, databases or records.
‘I first became aware of blacklisting in 1997 when I was employed by Carillion Plc.
‘I was told by Mr Gorman, Crown House HR manager, that Carillion used the services of an external consultant called Ian Kerr to ensure that certain workers did not gain employment on their projects.
‘Mr Gorman went on to explain that Mr Kerr provided this service to a number of other high profile companies and had collated a list of names from each of these companies over a period with a view to ensuring that those on the lists did not gain employment with other companies.’
In the judgment in the Employment Tribunal on Carillion’s blacklisting of a worker in London in March 2012 (Case no 1310709/2009) the judge said: ‘It seems to us that he has suffered a genuine injustice and we greatly regret that the law provides him with no remedy.’
The Blacklist Support Group ‘politely suggest that Richard Howson checks the information he is being given before making any further statements, and the group will be happy to send him copies of any documents that are in the public domain.’
The Blacklist Support Group responded to the statement on 25th October by Richard Howson, Chief Executive of Carillion on blacklisting.
Their spokesperson said: ‘Richard Howson says in his statement that it is important that people have access to information on blacklisting so that the whole industry can have a rational debate about this issue.
‘He needs to look carefully at the facts we have set out here in this press release.
‘We would like to remind Richard Howson of documents that are in the public domain and statements that have been made by Carillion managers under oath in court.
‘That Carillion blacklisted workers was proven in 2009 when the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) got details of the 3,213 construction workers held by the Consulting Association and used by 44 companies to keep trade union and health and safety activists off jobs.
‘There is clear evidence that Carillion involvement with the Consulting Association blacklist goes beyond Crown House to include Tarmac, John Mowlem, Schal International, SkyBlue Employment Agency as well as Carillion itself.
‘There is evidence that The Information Commissioners Office has specifically identified both Tarmac and Carillion as being subscribers to the Consulting Association.
‘Carillion came into being after the demerger of Tarmac in 1999. Prior to this date Tarmac was a major subscriber to the Consulting Association blacklist.
‘After 1999, Carillion carried on the same operations.
‘The Information Commissioners Office has released hundreds of pages of un-redacted blacklist files which highlight the role played by Carillion and a number of their subsidiaries in blacklisting.’
