Staff accused of theft or damage at their workplace are to be 
named and shamed on a new database which is due to be launched later this month. It could mean they find it impossible to find future employment.
What is shocking about this is that they can be named and shamed regardless of whether they have been convicted of any crime –and bosses can access it when vetting potential employees.
It is an Orwellian nightmare which has been dreamt up by the National Staff Dismissal Register and companies that have signed up include Harrods, Selfridges, Reed Managed Services and Mothercare. By the end of May they will be able to check whether job applicants have faced allegations of stealing, forgery, fraud, damaging company property or causing a loss to their employers and suppliers.
Trade unions and civil liberties campaigners are warning that it leaves workers vulnerable to the threat of false accusations and is open to abuse by employers who could bear staff a grudge. An employee may not even be aware they have been blacklisted or have any right to appeal.
While I do not condone any kind of criminal activity and sympathise with companies who have been victims of office crime, I do not believe that a person who has not been convicted of an offence by a court of law should be named and shamed in this way.
Doesn’t the Criminal Records Bureau already provide employers with the information they need? Is this really necessary?
My sister is in the retail trade and the problem she has is not with dishonest or troublesome staff, but getting enough police interest to prosecute shoplifters.
I’m really worried about this, and remember, mud sticks.
Sounds very worrying Ellee. I am extremely glad I work for myself and most of my friends are self employed as well – but i do feel for others.
Well said Ellee!
It does seem heavy handed, and smacks of McCarthyism.
I don’t like this at all. I can imagine it wil be easy to get on the blacklist and impossible to get off.
I agree this is awful and very much the same vein as my recent post on public demonstrations!
That is awful and very worrying.
I agree with Jean-Luc Picard in that it smacks of McCarthyism – can this actually be LEGAL???
So whatever happened to ‘innocent until proved guilty’? Each time i think our society cannot get any more controlling and petty, I’m proved wrong.
This is an outrageous attack on civil liberties. One malicious or false allegation and your career could be in tatters.
I agree that ‘innocent until proven guilty’ doesn’t seem to mean much anymore.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
This is quite shocking Ellee, employers and their umbrella organisations are going too far here.
I cannot even see the point of maintaining this blacklist even if everyone on it had been found guilty of a crime, the likelihood is, they would never be erased from the list.
At least the law allows for spent convictions.
This is truly disturbing.
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