RECENTLY, sources close to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) suggest that people claiming to be from the Unite union legal team have asked that the ICO only present 'semi-unredacted files', when the Information Commissioner appears before the Employment Tribunal. It must be emphasised that this has not yet been confirmed, but, if true, it would mean that any reference to the names of union officers in the files found at the officers of the 'blacklister', Ian Kerr, would be blacked out.
If true, then the legal reasoning may be that as the cases of the union members are directed against the companies alleged to have been paying Mr Kerr, operating the blacklist and perpetuating victimisation's, then any reference in the files to the involvement of the union or its officers would not be relevant to the proceedings. This can only be true in the narrowest sense, because some of the evidence seems to show, as in the DAF case, that the presence of a union official at management deliberations about the suitability of employees lent an air of respectability to what was happening and thus a sub-contractor, like the managers of DAF, could be influenced to act against their better judgement.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
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On reflexion, if true, this report is ominous. Who were on the Unite legal team at that time? Who authorised the request to the ICO?
At the Manchester Employment Tribunal dealing with the case of Mr.T.Moran & others v Daf Electrical Contractors Ltd. in 2004 the manager of Daf Michael Fahey, speaking under oath declared 'Amicus is our union!'
Then when the trade union barrister, Sue Machin asked him 'Your union! The employer's union!'
Michael Fahey replied: 'Yes, we pay the union dues for the men!'
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