Industry
minister Alan Johnson has denied that the Government is considering backing
plans to publish the names of people who have applied to employment tribunals
on the Internet.
The Employment
Tribunal Service had proposed including the information, which is already
publicly available on the public register at the Employment Tribunal Offices in
Bury St Edmunds and Glasgow on the Internet as early as September.
But
Johnson in a letter to the Financial Times, said the Government had no plans to
name complainants on the net.
He
stressed that had not seen the Employment Tribunal Service’s proposals and he
recognised concerns that had been expressed over making this information widely
available.
The
Communication Workers Union had opposed the proposals, claiming that the list
of tribunal applicants could be use as a blacklist by employers.
Billy
Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said, “This is a
disgraceful way to label people who seek remedies for blatantly unfair
behaviour by employers.”
By Ben
Willmott
