Angry union members took to the streets outside the Big Lottery Fund offices – as a storm over blacklisting in the construction sector came to Birmingham.
Members of the GMB union demonstrated outside Apex House in Edgbaston in protest at Dianne Hughes, currently Deputy Director of Human Resources at the lottery organisation.
Ms Hughes, a former senior executive in the construction sector, has been identified as an alleged key ally in a nationwide blacklisting furore during written evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee Inquiry.
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Justin Bowden, GMB National Officer, said “GMB will force the companies to apologise and compensate those they blacklisted.
“GMB is also calling to account managers and human resources professionals who organised the whole thing for 20 years.
“GMB asked Dianne Hughes if she would join other human resources professionals, and talk to us about blacklisting, to get to the truth, but instead she threatened litigation. New employers need to know their staff were involved in this shameful practice.
“There will be a report at GMB Congress in Plymouth on June 4 on progress on a High Court action on blacklisting involving over 100 GMB members. GMB is seeking a commitment that the Labour Party makes a public inquiry into blacklisting a manifesto pledge.”
The blacklisting came to light in 2009 when the Information Commissioners’ Office seized a database of 3,213 construction workers and environmental activists used by 44 companies to vet new recruits and keep union and health and safety activitists out of employment.
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Over 60 per cent of those on the blacklist were aged between 30 and 50 in the mid-90s. They were mainly active union leaders on constuction sites and included 69 from the Birmingham area.
A Big Lottery spokeswoman said the matter was a private issue for Ms Hughes.