BLACKLISTED construction workers look set to share nearly £2 million in compensation after Unite took legal action against their former employers.

The union took several construction firms to court earlier this year on behalf of 53 of its members, whose names were found on a blacklist discovered during a police raid of blacklisting outfit the Consulting Association (CA) in 2009.

The CA compiled detailed descriptions of more than 3,000 construction workers over the decades. Many of these workers were profiled for being active trade unionists, others were blacklisted for raising serious safety concerns or for criticising workplace practices.

The companies have now collectively agreed to pay £1.9m to the workers and to also pay £230,000 into a fund for the victims of blacklisting.

The workers and their union have welcomed the result but are demanding that a public inquiry take place so that company managers found guilty of blacklisting practices face jail time.

Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett said: “This is a historic agreement which provides some degree of justice to a further group of construction workers who had their working lives needlessly ruined by blacklisting construction companies.

“Unite remains utterly committed to ensuring that those guilty of ruining workers’ lives should be forced to account for their actions.

“This is why a full public inquiry into blacklisting is imperative.”

Blacklist Support Group (BSG) spokesman Dave Smith told the Star that the group welcomes the payout, but he described it as the guilty construction companies’ way of dodging prosecution.

“Firstly, we applaud the financial settlement for Unite members — these honest union members deserve every penny they got in compensation.

“But all of us are fuming that the legal system has once again allowed the wretches that unlawfully blacklisted people to buy themselves out of a trial,” Mr Smith said.

“The British legal system is massively stacked in favour of big business with lots of money. That’s not idle rhetoric, it’s a fact.

“BSG will not stop until those company directors who orchestrated this national scandal are forced to account for their actions. That is why we continue to demand a full public inquiry and call for all the blacklist firms to get thrown off publicly funded contracts.”