A Labour government would launch an official inquiry into the blacklisting scandal after 91 West Midlands workers were placed on a secret list of supposed troublemakers, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna has pledged.
He spoke out after eight of the firms involved issued an apology – and agreed to pay compensation to the victims.
But other firms have still not admitted their involvement, Labour said.
And even if they did, there still needed to be an inquiry to ensure the scandal could never be repeated, said Mr Umunna.
It follows the revelation that construction firms ran a secret blacklist naming specific workers as troublemakers who should not be employed.
The scheme came to light in 2009 when officials from the Information Commissioner’s Office, an official watchdog, raided an office in Worcestershire which had been used to store the list – but it is believed to have been going on for 16 years.
Around 40 construction firms paid £3,000 a year for the right to access the list, which was overseen by a body called The Consulting Association and contained the names of 3,213 workers.
They include 33 people in Birmingham, six in Dudley, seven in Walsall, two in Solihull, 11 in Wolverhampton, two in Sandwell, three in Coventry and one in Warwickshire.
Across the West Midlands, 91 people were blacklisted.
A joint statement issued by construction firms said: “The companies – Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI PLC – all apologise for their involvement with TCA [The Consulting Association] and the impact that its database may have had on any individual construction worker.
“The companies have joined together to establish the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme. The scheme is intended to make it as simple as possible for any worker with a legitimate claim to access compensation.”
