Are UK Employment Agencies 'Blacklisting' Workers Who Object To Bad Treatment?

Hi all.

My daughter is 28 and has always worked since she left school. She is registered with all the local employment agencies and has never had any problem being offered work by all of them and never been out of work .. . until just before Christmas.

She was sent to work at Citipost by an agency, and the vast majority of the people she worked with were foreigners. She was telling me how the manager at that company spoke to the workers as if they're animals, he shouted and swore at them, ridiculed and humiliated them in front of others, and constantly threatened them with being sacked if they didn't do as they were told.

One particular day (as it turned out this would be her last day of work), the manager approached her and began to speak to her as if she was some sort of sub-human species in an attempt to humiliate her (as he did the others regularly). She responded saying she comes to work to do a job, earn a living, and not to be verbally abused or treated with disrespect. The embarrassed manager left her to get on with her work for the rest of the shift. After that day, the agency didn't offer her work any more. Not just this agency, but all of the agencies have since not called her to offer work.

It has made me wonder if agencies are secretly blacklisting workers who talk back and/or object to being treated and spoken to with disrespect by bosses.

She called an agency this morning asking for any work, and she was told that they send workers CV's to their clients, and if these clients like her CV and want to meet her, then she will be sent for. In the past, she has never been asked to meet the 'client' before being sent to work for them, the agency has always called her with where to go to work and which company it is, never to meet the boss first.

Here's what I think: Foreign workers tend to not talk back to management and accept the abuse from them, and companies prefer to hire foreigners over British workers, because Brits will generally object to being spoken to and treated worse than an animal. Brits have now got a false reputation of being lazy and don't want to work, but the real truth is that companies prefer foreigners because they do as they're told and don't talk back. Foreigners are good little slaves and bosses love that.

Has anyone else had any experience of employment agencies 'blacklisting' workers? I really suspect this is what they are doing because it seems so strange that since this 'incident' with that manager, not one of the agencies are offering her any work at all.

Try hiring a P.I. and finding out. Then if he comes back with anything concrete, go to the media. I guarantee if you did that, these agencies would be forced to change their ways.

I wouldn't be surprised though. Temp work is unglamorous and businesses, since they know that these people aren't permanent, have no obligation to actually treat these workers with any respect. I once went to a temp agency, glad I didn't commit to it or anything.

reply to post by doobydoll


I feel so sorry for your daughter...I've had a similar experience, and I don't think it's just agencies. I'm pretty certain, although it's not something that I could prove, that large firms talk to each other off the record and blacklist people who cause problems, especially people who present a challenge to their unprofessional practices, especially if what they're doing is illegal, or could result in some kind of tribunal. That's pretty much why I'm self employed now. If you challenge their abuse, the chances are you're out the door, sadly.

reply to post by caitlinfae


I'm afraid tribunal is out of the question even if agencies are guilty of blacklisting, legal aid for industrial tribunals has now been withdrawn. Only wealthy people can have access to justice, it seems.

reply to post by doobydoll


Oh wow...how typical. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I hope she finds something she really likes to do, or maybe start her own business?

reply to post by doobydoll


I feel for you. It would not surprise me one bit if there was some underhand blacklisting being practised between agencies.

Work??? It's becoming more like slavery. Minimum wage, no religion, blind robotic obedience or out the door. Sounds to me like totalitarianism and a form of Marxism (the bad bits) is in full operation in the modern work environment. It's quite deliberate, too.

Very sorry to hear about your daughter's apparent mistreatment. I wish her every luck in finding better work where she is treated well.

doobydoll
She responded saying she comes to work to do a job, earn a living, and not to be verbally abused or treated with disrespect. The embarrassed manager left her to get on with her work for the rest of the shift. After that day, the agency didn't offer her work any more. Not just this agency, but all of the agencies have since not called her to offer work.

It has made me wonder if agencies are secretly blacklisting workers who talk back and/or object to being treated and spoken to with disrespect by bosses.

Whoops!! Valuable lesson learned.

Of course she's blacklisted. Time to move to another venue ... as all of these guys are sharing info.

Be happy for your daughter, brother. That's the modern day slave trade ... and your flesh and blood are removed from it because you bred her with a spine. There's nowhere but up from here!!

reply to post by doobydoll


What a bloody shame.
My sons are in employment full time work. i forbid them for going to any agency.

I insisted that if a company needed employees they can employ them, no way was I letting them work where a third party made money from their labour.

Employment agencies are the scum of the earth, they are no different from the mafia running the unions and the only way you could get a job was to join the union and pay the mafia.

I made them sign on and just would not allow it.

Im glad I stuck to my guns as both are employed in full time work with all their rights and holidays.

Ive always thought agencies where a barrier between me and a job - They're just not interested in people unless you have 'X' amount of experience. Really are scum of the job market imo. Hope things improve for your daughter - Good on her for not putting up with abusive management, its not right!

reply to post by doobydoll

around 6 weeks before xmas and around 6 to 8 weeks into the new year, agency work drys up .

i used to work for agencies for around 10 years up to retiring , a slump in work is normal at this time of year for agency workers

reply to post by doobydoll


It is illegal but yes they do blacklist, in the old days the method was simply called blacklisting then as it was made illegal the term digital shadow was used to name a method employers used to subscribe to a service that provided online details of potential employees and even though it is illegal to provide a bad reference I have never heard of a prosecution of the digital shadow method of blacklisting, there are indeed probably several data sharing services out there and all it takes is one bad entry.
But let's be fair the reason why employement agency's are so popular is that they allow the employer to circumvent employement law and as such the Agency's should be banned except where they pay (which non do) a retention fee to the employee as they make substantial amounts from providing cheap labour, now instead of banning this unethical practice the government (both conservative and labour as they are essentially all the same) which is in cahoots with the CBI (an unelected private members association that funds the conservative's to some degree and has many top conservative and labour poloticians as members but is supposed to be nothing but a corporate pressure group "representing the interests of the corporations not the nation") so they are actually about to sell of the job centre's to these same employement agency's, Tony blair was so guilty over his mismanagement in a crisis of faith he converted to catholocism so he could give a poor confessor a nervous breakdown but cameron is more like nero with a master plan, he is fiddling while rome burns but has an escape plan so they will not get him like they did nero.

reply to post by LABTECH767


Proof of blacklisting.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Ucatt, a construction union, is also separately starting legal proceedings against 10 firms suspected of involvement with a "secret" blacklist.

The list, with the names of 3,214 workers and environmentalists on it, was discovered by the Information Commissioner in 2009.

www.theguardian.com...

Eight firms, including Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Sir Robert McAlpine, apologise to workers barred from jobs for raising legitimate concerns

Yes this occurs. The UK job market is VERY crooked at the moment. I have no doubts that job agencies employ a similar grey area tactic.

Did you know that most electronic CV's are scanned for key words and phrases? Most companies employ electronic CV and recruitment too, big companies have algorithm's that filter CV's based on various data and keywords.

www.bbc.co.uk...

This means it's as likely as not it won't be someone vetting you - but something.

These programs, called applicant tracking systems, scan your CV to decide whether you move on in the process or fall at the first hurdle

The data protection act is a safeguard, but that has been warped in the last 5 years or so, through the use of social media, online activity and such, private companies purchase this data.

reply to post by doobydoll

Yes black lists DO exist. I'm on one. The only way around it is not using scumbag agencies.

It isn't just the UK either. All these things, was called "temp agency" in the US, are a bunch of crap. They basically allow companies to hire without benefits, and without worry about how they treat the workers. Any worker objects, oh well, there are hundreds of others fighting over any opening that presents themselves. Why? because a boatload of companies only hire temp workers now.

It's sick, really going back to the slave days. We may not be wearing physical chains anymore, but most of us are carrying the heavy chains of debt and/or overpriced everything. What is the real difference? We don't get whipped anymore physically, but beat up mentally. Constantly told we are not doing a good enough job, when these days we are doing the job of what ten years ago would have been the job of at least two people.

I remember working stock in a grocery store for a few months when I had a falling out with my dad, who I am partners with in the flooring business. I was expected to pack out and stock 6 aisles both sides a night, hired as "part time" which means no benefits, no overtime, no nothing. They had a loophole that allowed them to work me 40+ hours a week for three weeks, then just make sure every fourth week I only worked 39 weeks, and call me part time. Anyways, after being there a while, I find out that I was actually hired to replace two fulltime stockers that moved on to better jobs. No wonder I was always having to work at least two extra hours a night to finish. Also, this was a 24/7 open store, and many times I would have to go and redo aisles that were "not satisfactory", because after I stocked and made it pretty and moved on, browsing customers messed it all up. What a nightmare. The manager was an abusive jerk, always making me feel like an idiot for not having everything memorized after the second day. Mind you, this was a bulk store, if you ever been in say cosco or B.J.'s you know what those aisles are like. Thankfully we patched up the fallout after a short while, and I was able to come on shift and tell the manager where to go. And to have fun doing two peoples' jobs on top of his own until he was able to find another idiot to work for him.

Thanks for the replies guys and for the show of support for my daughter, much appreciated.

I just have to post this, I live local to the Sports Direct warehouse at Shirebrook in Mansfield, I live just a couple of miles away.

A young Eastern European woman gave birth to a baby boy in a warehouse toilet, and allegedly abandoned it there. Anyway, have a read:
www.nottinghampost.com...

A WOMAN has been arrested on suspicion of willful neglect after a baby boy was born in the toilets of a retail warehouse.
She was arrested on the evening of Saturday, January 4 after police were called to a Sports Direct distribution centre in Shirebrook.

The mother is believed to be in her mid 20s and of Eastern European origin.
A Derbyshire Police spokesman said: “Police were called by the ambulance service at around 11.15pm on January 1st to reports of the birth of a baby in unusual circumstances at a business premises in Shirebrook.

“Officers are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the birth.”

Sports Direct have not released a comment.

As I said, I live pretty close to this place, and this news sparked outrage on a local community Facebook page after it was released. People were saying terrible things about this woman for apparently abandoning her new born baby, despite the lack of information surrounding the incident.

On the Facebook page, there was a comment from a foreign guy who had been working with this lady at Sports Direct, but what he had to say is shocking.

He said that the warehouse workers, of whom are 80% foreign and the rest Brits, are employed by Blue Arrow Recruitment Agency. He said they were all working alongside this lady who was obviously in advanced pregnancy, when she began to have labour pains. She went to the warehouse supervisor and told him she had started labour and needed help, but the supervisor shouted at her and told her that if she left the warehouse premises, she would not be paid and she would also lose her job.

He said they are forced to work 12+ hours each shift and not permitted any breaks except for a half hour lunch break.

The guy also added in a comment that the woman was terrified of losing her job, so she obeyed meekly and without a word when ordered back to work. He said that's why she went into the toilets and gave birth in there, alone.

The guy making the comments was so angry because bosses are trying to say this lady just dumped her new baby without a thought, and said all the workforce there were furious at being treated like slaves. He said Blue Arrow Recruitment immediately denied knowing who the woman is and tried to say she was a customer and not a worker. But all Blue Arrow workers sent Sports Direct can only clock in work with their thumbprint, and customers would not be able to access the actual workers area.

He also added (and this is really just a rumour) that Sports Direct bosses had later approached the lady in hospital and secretly offered her an amount of money.

I have to say, and there are many more local people saying the same thing, that this story sounds like recruitment agencies and company bosses which use them, are guilty of seriously neglecting foreign workers and are getting away with it because foreigners are terrified of losing their jobs, which they are constantly threatened with if they cause problems and don't tow the line.
There is no update as yet to this news, and bosses at Sports Direct have made no comment so far. A police investigation is underway.

I am shocked and appalled that in UK 2014 AD, human beings are being treated worse than animals in the workplace. And it confirms to me why British companies prefer to use foreign workers over Brits, because there's no way any Brit would tolerate this sort of treatment and would kick all Holy hell up if they were ordered back to work whilst in labour. Foreigners have no idea they don't have to work in an advanced state of pregnancy if they choose, and bosses are not informing them either. It's all conducted in secrecy and no-one has dared to say a word in public for fear of losing their jobs. So the slave situation is continuing behind a veil of secrecy because bosses know they are wrong.

What the hell has happened to our country? We have no workers rights any more, not allowed to air our grievances or you're fired. No more Industrial Tribunals for unfair dismissals unless you pay up front for it, and who can afford that when your pay is £6 an hour before taxes?

I am totally ashamed of our Nazi government, ashamed that there is no respect for working people any longer.

If this disgusting, corrupt, self-serving, shower of a government wins the next election I hope there will be riots in this country. I'm 56 years old but I will be on the front line with the rest of them to boot these apologies for humans out of Parliament. They'll need to have my boot surgically removed from up their arses and my fists from their earholes, for sure.

Why are we waiting for the next election before we eff the tories off for good? Why can't we all just turn up and haul these criminal MP's out by the scruff of their fat necks? I hate what this country has become, it's the pits without a doubt.

reply to post by doobydoll


Horrible and I for one believe that the story from the insider is the truth, This poor girl is working here to escape poverty and while the unethical practice of hiring foreign agency workers over local workers and thus harming the local economy and denying british jobs is bad when all is said and done these foreign workers are no different to us and if we where in there place we would likely be doing the same thing's to survive, the ones at fault are and it is squarely on there unethical greedy shoulders - The CBI as if they had never had input into government policy's over the past thirty years (they have no legal, moral or common sense right to have any say and have all but supplanted the role of chancellor in making "PROPOSING" government financiel and employment policy on behalf of multi national conglomerates "Look what they have done to america - the corporations and conglomerates not the CBI though they are essentially the same bunch") we would now be living in a country where ageny's would be properly regulated and a far far smaller sector of the employee market, it is common sense to provide employees with regulated protected job's as they benefit the economy - after all they are the consumers and have to earn there wage somewhere but if you own a company and are working on a 2 year plan with not a damn for the nation or it's future then as the director and investor you will disolve those rights and protections to strip mine the country for your own wealth, now that is both exactly what they have done and what they are doing and it is what happened to america.

Now you know the reason for open gate immgration, the people behind it and their motivations.

That good ole masters and slaves era was a wonderful era for the owners.

I am in a similar position,
I stood up to a Company Director which had the same work ethic that your daughter described, and asked me to break the Official Secrets Act several times (which I refused every time) to try and give the company the edge in a business bid, of which the company was not successful, this for me went on for nearly a year.
The company Director was found to have lied on an individual assessment that was being administered for disciplinary action by HR, I challenged this and nearly 80% of the evidence provided by the Director was overturned and there were clear but unproven questions on the validity of the other 20% which was supplied as evidence by another member of staff that was clearly in support of the company Director, it was also found that the director had tried use his stature and influence to manipulate HR in to a favourable outcome to their favour.
Considering this overturn of evidence and the director found to abuse their powers, no action was taken with the director, and after following further advice and then proceeding with a formal complaint against the company director of which the company choose not to accept or take any action in the matter.
Two other directors including the HR director under instruction from the Managing Director then when on an evidence handling exercise to try and find enough evidence to have me removed from the company of which some months had passed not even circumstantial evidence could be found they even tried to use a disability that I had and was open with them from the start of joining the company and had worked for the company for several years with no issues of the disability affecting the work produced this even transpired by the removal of medical assessment from my personal file and an accusation that I withheld the information from the employer, which after further investigation and assessment this course of action was dropped.
Even though this was the case the company and the Directors still pushed ahead with unfounded accusations and cooked up evidence to proceed with a disciplinary procedure to have me removed from the company this even resulted in the final disciplinary meeting where the Directors and HR could only drum up two loose pieces of circumstantial evidence supplied from the company Director that had originally attempted to oust me previously.
I had provided written evidence which proved that this individual had lied again in an attempt to blacken my name and have me removed from the company for no good reason, at this point being opposite the table and having two Directors looking a little dumbfounded and asking the person that was taking the minutes of the meeting to scrub my comments and proof of evidence from the minutes register, and I was asked to leave the room for ten minutes while they had another discussion with the director that had made the false claims.
Five minutes later I was invited back in to the meeting director nowhere to be seen with most of the office workers hoping finally their day had come as some of the account from several people that have held the role have suffered under the same axe, but this was not to be that day instead I was given a piece of paper with a very lucrative number written on it and asked to leave the company with immediate effect, with confirmation that the lucrative sum would be paid.
I have witnessed first-hand what this Director has done to previous employees when a reference has been requested for other employment, and the bad mouthing that this director has done about previous employees to other industry directors about individuals that he has dispensed with in similar circumstances at trade fairs, meetings. I also know of one individual that was removed from employment with another company as this director had anonymously contacted their HR, made several un-confirmed accusations about the individual, resulting in making the individuals employment untenable.
So coming back to me, I have applied for 100’s of positions since being made, well redundant, paid off, The Sack with an big bag of cash instead of my tools!, but can I gain employment no, why?
I briefly did gain employment but even that was difficult but I received some very good feedback from the company I received good references all round bar one you guessed it, and at first the director refused twice to give a reference and when they did it was very poor, so poor that they decided to throw the reference in the bin as I had been up front with them of why I left the company all the way though the interview assessment.
I was invited to an interview with the competition and this went very cold when the background checks and references were taken but the feedback was good again I went from top choice to bottom after references were taken. So much that they will not engage with me on other opportunities.
The recruitment company that placed me in to my previous company originally will not have me on the books and downright refuses to place me for any work in the area and I have been receiving the same issues from other recruitment agencies in the area that after further assessment will not deal with me with one recruiter that I know on a personal level saying that the company that I worked for is expanding and there contract is good so at the risk of dealing with me and loosing potential business guess what I loose.
I have even had one recruiter in the county that I submitted my CV after the net had been going mad, and the Job centre, and my work coach at the job centre as the role was though a recruiter and my CV experience and the field was 100% match the job coach advised that these do not come around often especially in this part of the country many people are normally 70, 80, 90% there.
The recruiter responded in under 30 minutes refused and not suitable for the role a blind person could have seen that I was more than suitable. I reapplied with the same agency for a different but equally as qualified role again under 30 minutes. And this has been becoming more and more the case with other recruiters within 30 minutes to 2 hours after submission in this county I am refused and if I place in for another role with the same recruiter it is the same response or no response at all.
When I have been to a face to face interview the interviewers have always commented on the CV saying that it is one of the best they have seen with the level of experience that I have acquired, and good feedback from the interview, but it always gets kicked back when it comes two previous employer references and as my investigations so far have shown it only leaves one company as the majority of companies are reporting back nowadays and I know the reference that I receive from the other is good and was recently invited back to interview with them they had already assessed references internally which brought me to the interview, so was down to external references, and as that company was one of my two previous employer references you guessed it, gone very cold and will not engage with me further.
My job coach has never seen anything like it in all his time in the role he says the job centre has a trend that under normal conditions someone with my qualifications worked every day in multiple jobs for over 20 years normally finds permanent work in 6 – 12 weeks, not 6 – 12 months and more so when they are looking nationally rather than just in the county.

I have expressed my concerns of what has been going on to the job coach even the concerns that It has been reported to me by a current employee of the company that I know very well, that the director in question has been eager to assess which companies I have been applying for, had interviews with ect. The Job Centre agree and have suggested the following and are backing me in taking this action.
1. Contact the Information Commissioners Office they will be able to confirm what companies have what information on you as there is an official list held if you stole from the company, or have been made out to have caused loss from the company without charge resulting in your dismissal and this has been open to abuse by some companies in the past.

2. The recruitment companies that you know have most probably blacklisted you, and you feel that you are HR blacklisted the example of the company above that rejects all my job applications in under 30 minutes is a prime example, you can request that an ICO investigation to be carried out on that company, as you believe that there is an unofficial blacklist being used.

3. The Company that you feel may be discrediting you can be investigated as well by the ICO as verbal information and written information is still information that is being passed to cause somebody harm if not physically, but mentally

4. Suspend informing friends which are still working at the company your plans and interviews, and companies that you are in talks with especially if they are in the same industry as your previous employer and in direct competition, and

5. May sound extreme but had me thinking about it, change your passwords to your personal e-mail, social media, and jobsites you are reviewing how many of you use the same password at home as at work. (and who do you have to hand the laptop back to with all the password information when you are removed from the company?)

6. And may sound silly but if you are married a good litmus test is to apply for positions in your maiden name instead of your married name surprisingly nothing illegal about working or retaining your maiden name after your married.
Either way if any of the above is taking place it is illegal and it is about time that something was done about it just like has been done in Scotland with the building site workers.
My task has just started but hopefully should have some results soon
a reply to: THEoriginal843