SCOTTISH universities have been urged to ban building companies which blacklisted workers involved in trade union activity.

Academics called on institutions north of the Border to boycott firms which took part in the practice and then failed to pay workers compensation.

A motion to the annual congress of the UCU Scotland union, which represents lecturers and support workers, said universities should enshrine the ban in their procurement policies.

The blacklist was discovered in 2009 after a raid by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on the West Midlands offices of a firm called the Consulting Association.

The ICO seized a database containing the names of over 3,000 construction workers and environmental activists, which was used by dozens of companies across the UK.

Workers said they were included on the list often for merely raising health and safety concerns on building sites, or for being union activists, with many believing they had been denied work as a result.

Eurig Scandrett, a UCU member from the Queen Margaret University union, who proposed the motion, said: "Universities are public institutions with public responsibilities and they also contract work to construction companies from time to time.

"As trade unionists in the higher education sector we can call on the universities not to employ the construction companies who used this illegal and abhorrent practice.

"It is a realistic and practical measure that we would expect universities to comply with the state very loudly that this is unacceptable."

The attack on blacklisting came just days after construction companies were accused of an "act of bad faith" and of "misleading" MPs over a compensation scheme for blacklisted workers.

A report by the Scottish Affairs Select Committee said eight firms behind the scheme were more interested in minimising damage to their reputation and finances rather than a genuine attempt to tackle the scandal. The MPs called for a full public inquiry.

The committee said it was difficult to conclude that publicity around the launch of the compensation scheme last year was a "deliberate attempt to mislead", and that the implication unions were in agreement was "callous and manipulative". A statutory code of practice was required to eradicate blacklisting, the committee said.

The UCU congress, in Edinburgh, also debated motions calling for improved governance of Scotland's universities.

The union wants to see elected trade union representatives on universities' powerful ruling Courts despite opposition from Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, who called the idea undemocratic.

Angi Lamb, UCU Scotland's honorary secretary, said: "University principals.... are pursuing a line of argument that both defied logic and verges on the offensive to trade unionists - stating that electing chairs of governing bodies is undemocratic and that having trade union nominees on governing bodies is against the principles of standards in public life.

"These increasingly strong and bizarre attacks on reform only go to show that they are worried about the strength of our argument and that it is being heard by politicians."

She also attacked the practice of universities employing academic staff on zero hours contracts.

Earlier this week the union wrote to institutions north of the Border calling on them to improve terms of conditions of employees.

The move comes after MPs on Westminster's Scottish Affairs Select Committee found thousands of employees were suffering "abuse and exploitation" on zero-hours contracts.

Its report said: "We are alarmed by the extent to which zero-hours contracts are used by Scotland's higher education sector.

Since then, both Edinburgh University and Glasgow University have worked with the UCU Scotland union, which represents lecturers and support staff, to improve contracts of employment for casualised workers.

However, the UCU has now written to remaining institutions including Strathclyde, Glasgow Caledonian, Glasgow School of Art, St Andrews, Stirling, Heriot-Watt, in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Abertay, in Dundee.