Agency accused of blacklisting

[chiz]

BBC website reporting that a firm providing information on workers to companies including Balfour Beatty and Laings had been allegedly operating a blacklist:

[url][/url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7927487.stm

quote:
Around 40 construction companies who subscribed to the scheme would send lists of prospective employees to The Consulting Association, who would then warn them about potential troublemakers.

Some of the notes uncovered by an ICO raid on the association's offices included descriptions such as "ex-shop steward, definite problems", "Irish ex-Army, bad egg".

Other notes related to workers who had raised concerns over health and safety issues on sites, such as asbestos removal.

Given concerns in the past about the amount of personal info that repeatedly has to be given on many sites as part of induction, and the lack of security of that data (set of induction files 'lost' from one London site resulting in loans taken out using stolen data) this is troubling.

Be careful when filling in those endless personal detail forms, there's enough info there to steal your identity -and this has happened! On one site we managed to limit the amount of data we put down, used our employer's office as address and contact number etc, but they reserved the right to share the data with whoever they wanted and keep it as long as they liked.

[Sparky]

See http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/p...060309.pdf for the ICO press release and further information

[mesolithic viking]

I once worked for a unit in York and a year later I found all my personal details on the web through their computer system just by putting my name into Google. Needless to say I was less than impressed (with their data security not my personal details).

Careful, it might be hallucinogEeEe**33nnnn..

[EarlySlav]

While these companies have bee caught out only on the Data Protection Act is there any past evidence of any Archaeological companies doing the same in an informal way?

[Dirty Dave Lincoln]

"is there any past evidence of any Archaeological companies doing the same in an informal way?"

At the start of my career, I was told by an old digger, that those who rock the boat are the first over-board. This is as true now as it was then-all a company has to do is contrive a 'lay off' and get rid of a person they consider a 'trouble-maker',they're not sacked, because then the company would have to prove the individual was guilty of mis-conduct,so the person is laid off and won't be employed by that company again.
And depending how vindictive an individual is within the company that did the 'getting rid off', all it takes is a phone call to another company that they know the, ahem-trouble maker is looking to be employed by and they can get them blacklisted there as well.

[grindlecat]

Archaeology companies have their own 'blacklist' and it's much more insidious and subtle. It's the middle-class version of Balfours. A word here, a phone call there and you're buggerd.
That's why there's no real unionization in archaeology here. there's a always a fresh crop of eager post grads to keep the wages down, allowing units like ****** to undercut other units on tenders and underpay their staff consistently, for years.
Having just returned from Ireland and seen the system there and the same, but different, Class and University clannishness and being 'in' the cosy club or outside it, I am immune now to the rage which boils in my breast at the injustice and stupidity of UK and Irish firms in the way they employ people and discard them when no longer required.
But it's always been like this in archaeology. That's not to say it doesn't need to change, but many things are changing now and we'll see what happens to all the heavily technology led and 'business' model type units in the coming year.
There will be a heavy cull of capable, good diggers and supervisors as well, so what will be left will be interesting to see.
Maybe those of us with unfashionable university degrees and years of experience will actually move up the scale a few rungs...who knows.
But the Blacklist. There's always a blacklist and as Billy Bragg said, "if you've got a blacklist, I want to be on it."

[Austin Ainsworth]

grindlecat, I altered your post to take out the name of the unit you identified. That part of your post was in clear contravention of the AUP and couldn't be allowed to stay. If you have a specific complaint against a company contact Hosty off screen, give him the details and he will look into it for you.

[Windbag]

I've worked and been laid off in the past. There's always going to be a pecking order in terms of jobs- you just have to hope that decisions like redundancies are made for good (ie archaeology and business-related rather than personal) reasons. It's likely that there will always be redundancies, as fieldwork is largely seasonal and so dependent on the planning and construction sectors. Having said that, I've worked with a couple of very experienced staff who I didn't shed a tear for when they were sacked- archaeology has its fair share of people who are willing to get paid for not doing a decent professional day's work. It's also a small circle, so if you get a bad reputation from one job it can follow you for the rest of your career- which is far from ideal.

[Tim]

The Consultants Association is a spin off from the Economic League which was an extreme right wing organisation (Neo Nazi, White supremacist, Anti semitic, Moseleyite blackshirt) which had links to a certain criminal gangs that had infiltrated archaeology/anthropology, some of these gang members still work in archaeology, they all have fake or fraudulent qualifications. The EL was exposed in the early 90's at Parliamentary commission when the 2 founder members were shown photos and videos of them wearing full SS uniforms and regalia and addressing neonazi skinhead meetings. When asked the question "how long have you been Nazis" by the commission they started "Sieg Heilling". I was a witness to this event. Mindblowing stuff it was.


"Freedom of ideas is one thing, freedom of the purse is quite another". Edward Harris

[BAJR Host]

We need more on this... if there are archaeologists out there who are Extremeist and with fraud qualifications, then we need to know (privately if you wish..) if any of them are in the IfA then they definitely need to know.

"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."
Niccolo Machiavelli