A proposed employee blacklist database which would allow employers to list staff members accused of misconduct could leave former employees open to bullying, it has been claimed.

Becky Hogge, executive director of the Open Rights Group, says the list would be ‘wide open’ to abuse of both whistleblowers and workplace rights activists.

She describes the potential use of 21st century technology as ‘a throwback to darker days’.

Hogge comments: ‘Essentially this proposal undermines the courts, by building a more effective means of punishing people in a non-judicial manner, with few of the checks and balances we’ve built up over the centuries.’

The National Staff Dismissal Register is a subscription-based service due to be launched in the UK by Action Against Business Crime (AABC), which allows employers to list former employees who have been accused of theft or other misconduct – whether they were convicted or not.

According to the BBC, the AABC claims that a number of firms, including Selfridges, Harrods and Reed, have already signed up to the service.

UPDATE: August 2008. The Register has reported that the organisation behind the private database is holding talks with major corporations to expand into other industries.

Insurance, banking, pharmaceutical and hospitality companies have all come forward to express interest in joining the “National Staff Dismissal Register” since it was launched in May, according to Action Against Business Crime (AABC), the consortium behind the project.