They've got a little list ...

The BBC is reporting that "workers accused of theft or damage could soon find themselves blacklisted on a register to be shared among employers". I wonder how soon smokers and other people with "bad" or "anti-social" habits will be added to that list? Story HERE.

Comments

[Blad Tolstoy]

Ho, hum, another badly thought through project by New and collapsing Labour. They still don't know when to put the breaks on.

Moreover, to those people who say the idea is fine where those who have genuinely committed offences are concerned, no, it's not.

Sometimes people do silly things and especially when they are young. Everyone deserves the chance to redeem themselves and to correct their misbehaviour without being cut out of the job market.

[Joyce]

Such a list, were it to be used legitimately, is unnecessary. When checking references the question "Would you re-employ this person?" always cut through the reluctance of a previous employer to admit that they'd been glad to get rid of someone.

The worry is that HMG is involved in this joint initiative with a private company. Both of them have an interest in extending both the users of the register (which, at the moment, seems to be confined to retailers) and the amount of information held. I wouldn't trust either not to misuse the information.

[DaveK]

How ironic.

Why don't you ask your friend "Simon Richards of The Freedom Association" about the blacklist they used to run back in the 80s, for the purpose of excluding people from employment based on their political opinions?

Hounding people for thought crime is even worse than hounding them for smoking.