National Staff Dismissal Register This was set up by Action Against Business Crime which was formed by Home office and British Retail Consortium with £1m of taxpayers’ money. Primarily the AABC was organising local business crime partnerships but then went on to set up the NSDR with a company called Hicom. It is running an online database of workers accused of theft and dishonesty, regardless of whether they have been convicted of any crime, which bosses can access when vetting potential employees.
The system holds details of individuals who have been dismissed (whether prosecuted or otherwise) or left the company whilst under suspicion of: Theft or attempted theft of money, merchandise or property from the Company, its suppliers, staff or customers. Falsification or forgery of documents. Fraudulent acts resulting in the obtaining or intention of obtaining money, assets, services or information which would otherwise be denied. Causing a loss to the Company or another party (e.g. Supplier). Causing damage to Company property. The database will also include: Dob, name, address, nat ins no, previous employer Some key words in this are accused and causing loss to the company. Obviously accused means guilt by suspicion alone and that will be enough to stop you getting work anywhere else. It is obviously open to manipulation, malicious and vindictive bosses, and mistakes. Causing a loss to the company – well raising H & S issues, not being bullied into working late hours and striking all cause losses. But it hasn’t been getting as wide support as they wanted. For businesses it is a bit of a risk – In fact many HR consultants, lawyers and businesses are warning against becoming involved as it could lead to discrimination prosecutions, defamation claims, rehab of offenders act breaches, id fraud... They could find themselves embroiled in litigation from Unions and massively bad PR. Although it went live in May 2008 with claims that they had lots of backers in the retail trade and would roll out to other industries by last Christmas it was reported to have only ten businesses signed up. Also, early this year the AABC nearly folded as the govt money had dried up in 2007 and the BRC withdrew its funding – it is now trying to set up as an independent group Hopefully, with enough pressure and exposure it can be killed off for good. In the meantime, to further any investigation into blacklisting, we need your help
Below we have listed those we know to be involved in the NSDR, both running it and using it. We will also list those who have stated they are not part of it (AABC seems to have claimed firms were involved who were not). It seems not all the businesses using it want to be known so we would value any info on who is involved; we also would like to know any more details on AABC, Hicom; any updates on the NSDR and any impact of it being used. If you spot any mistakes in any of this please let us know and we will correct them as soon as we can. Those involve in running the NSDR: Action Against Business Crime Initially funded by British retail consortium and Home office – now running independantly. Oddly there is no mention of NSDR on their website: www.businesscrime.org.uk AABC is: Action Aga, Hertfordshire, HP4 2PP Lord Dear Chair ex chief constable west midlands police Michael Schuck chief exec, advisor ex Met police superintendant Andrew Godfrey public policy manager, corp affairs Alliance Boots Dr Julie Grail chief exec of British Bids James Lowman chief exec association of convenience stores Richard Barron director encams Garath Elliot exec of chamber of commerce
AABC Corporate supporters: Bank of England British Bids British Business Parks Kent Police Notts Police Professional Security Magazine (Michael Schuck is their advisor)
Hicom Business Solutions: William Price (Director) Hicom Business Solutions Red House Brookwood Surrey, GU24 0BL T: 01483 794850 e-mail: william.price@hicom.co.uk Web: www.hicom.co.uk/businesssolutions Hicom Technology, tel 01483 794745
Those businesses using it: Harrods, Mothercare, Selfridges Reed Managed Services, Littlewoods, Those who have declared they are not involved: Mothercare, HMV |