Comedian on construction industry "blacklist"

scorza

scorza

scorza

Caporegime
Joined
22 Jun 2004
Posts
26,684
Location
Deep England
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...thomas-on-construction-blacklist-8879897.html

The comedian Mark Thomas has spoken of his anger after discovering his name on a blacklist drawn up for construction companies.
...
The comedian said: “I wasn’t massively surprised, but I was shocked. I don’t work in the construction industry, although I have been involved in campaigns against the activities of building firms.
Click to expand...

How bizarre, but it does serve to highlight the shameful employment practice of "blackballing" people. As the article mentions, the construction industry has agreed to pay compensation to people on the list so there can be no debate that they have done wrong.
 
"I have been involved in campaigns against the activities of building firms. But to include a comic in all of this is just nuts.”

I don't know what he thinks this means. He's also a grade A idiot.
 
Mark Thomas Comedy Product was hilarious, it's probably somewhere on YouTube now but when they kicked a football into the back of 10 Downing St. LOL! :D
 
Mark Thomas is a pretty common name. It wouldn't surprise me if a dodgy builder also had that name.
 
I have always found the complaints about blacklisting coming from groups that support random striking and would love to see the return of the closed shop somewhat hypocritical.

The big problem with blacklisting is that it occurs in secret in most industries. Imagine how much better the police force would be, for example, if those who resigned/retired during disciplinary action rather than let the process take its course to conclusion would have consequences from such activity, same with teachers, nurses etc etc.

This is not to excuse what has happened in this particular instance, but the idea that blacklisting has no value whatsoever flies in the face of the existence of professional bodies.
 
Last edited:
Surely if he has a wife/gf/whatever he could have any construction work done in her name, unless it's based on address as well.
 
I'm surprised people think it's a fine thing in society for an organisation to blacklist people they simply don't like, or people who makes jokes they don't agree with.

I assume people think it would be perfectly acceptable if say, a large organisation decided to blacklist anybody of a certain political ideology then?.

By doing business in the UK you agree to conform to basic principles of fair business practice - personally I don't think a business should have the right to refuse business based on arbitrary factors at all (as it's discriminatory, just on a personal level - as opposed to say a racial or sexual level - which is currently illegal).
 
Last edited:
elmarko said:
I'm surprised people think it's a fine thing in society for an organisation to blacklist people they simply don't like, or people who makes jokes they don't agree with.

I assume people think it would be perfectly acceptable if say, a large organisation decided to blacklist anybody of a certain political ideology then?.

By doing business in the UK you agree to conform to basic principles of fair business practice - personally I don't think a business should have the right to refuse business based on arbitrary factors at all (as it's discriminatory, just on a personal level - as opposed to say a racial or sexual level - which is currently illegal).
Click to expand...

There are already large organisations that ban certain ideologies (identified by political party membership) from employment. Many of these are public sector. Also many trade unions ban people from membership based on political affliliation, so your objections are pretty poor.

Note also that I did not say that this instance was acceptable, just that the concept isn't as terrible as many vested interests make out.
 
Dolph said:
There are already large organisations that ban certain ideologies (identified by political party membership) from employment. Many of these are public sector. Also many trade unions ban people from membership based on political affliliation, so your objections are pretty poor.

Note also that I did not say that this instance was acceptable, just that the concept isn't as terrible as many vested interests make out.
Click to expand...
I said they shouldn't be allowed, I also used the term organisation deliberately to indicate that it was general (as opposed to specifically just aimed at business) - which included unions within it, it was also under the impression they are not allowed to.

The latter half of the was speaking about the building industry (who are a business selling a service/product) - which is why it was referencing them.

Do you have any examples of public sector organisations which ban based on political ideology, or any trade unions which do this? (I'd be interested to read up further on the subject).

As (Blacklisting was made illegal under the Employment Act 2010.), which makes me somewhat surprised to hear the public sector are doing this via the proxy of political affiliation.
 
Last edited:
elmarko said:
By doing business in the UK you agree to conform to basic principles of fair business practice - personally I don't think a business should have the right to refuse business based on arbitrary factors at all (as it's discriminatory, just on a personal level - as opposed to say a racial or sexual level - which is currently illegal).
Click to expand...
You've got to be ****ing joking, most of big businesses in the UK abuse their workers, avoid taxation, con their customers, engage in unfair competition practises and would sell their own mother into slavery for a bit of a profit increase.

But the UK government will never do anything because they're scared no one will want to come in and replace the firms when they up and leave. In short it'd make their figures look bad then the sheeplike moronic masses wouldn't vote for them, not understanding the finer points associated with economics.
 
pitchfork said:
You've got to be ****ing joking, most of big businesses in the UK abuse their workers, avoid taxation, con their customers, engage in unfair competition practises and would sell their own mother into slavery for a bit of a profit increase.

But the UK government will never do anything because they're scared no one will want to come in and replace the firms when they up and leave. In short it'd make their figures look bad then the sheeplike moronic masses wouldn't vote for them, not understanding the finer points associated with economics.
Click to expand...
Well, I mean fair in the loosest possible sense, in that you can't discriminate arbitrarily against individual customers (via blacklists, or I'd have thought proxies for them).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom