Normally my sceptic mode kicks in when I read the web - it is a place full of mirth, fun, information, porn and some quite interesting sites, too.
But reading my normal news sites, the BBC being one of them - I came across this. And to me this just isn’t right - at all!
Workers accused of theft or damage could soon find themselves blacklisted on a register to be shared among employers. It will be good for profits but campaigners say innocent people could find it impossible to get another job.
To critics it sounds like a scenario from some Orwellian nightmare.
An online database of workers accused of theft and dishonesty, regardless of whether they have been convicted of any crime, which bosses can access when vetting potential employees.
But this is no dystopian fantasy. Later this month, the National Staff Dismissal Register (NSDR) is expected to go live.
Someone, somewhere must be doing something about this - it cannot be legal - can it?
The project has attracted little publicity. But the BBC News website can reveal that trade unions and civil liberties campaigners are warning that it leaves workers vulnerable to the threat of false accusations.
I hope that the BBC and the trade unions with the help of other organisations will be all over this like a rash!
All Images designed by Alison Rhodes (LastingExpressions)
2 responses so far ↓
Xie_Ming // May 9, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Those who have not been employers may be unaware that big employers routinely run “background checks” on prospective employees.
People who do the checking try to find derorgatory things, in order to justify their service.
I remember one, reporting on someone who, as a college student, had worked in garage.
The “derogatory” comment: “he was always under a car”!
Stonehead // May 12, 2008 at 10:50 am
Companies already run blacklists and have done for years. I was blacklisted by a major media corporation back in the 1980s and never got a job with them again.
Why? Because I dared to leave after completing my three-year cadetship and I’d cost them money in training etc. Actually, they were among the lowest paying companies at the time, they only offered me a couple of grand more on completing my training while a rival company offered me a post two grades higher and with significantly more money.
The new British system will legitimise this sort of thing as it allows people to be blacklisted for causing companies to incur a loss.
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