Major construction companies are to compensate workers whose names were on a secret industry blacklist.

The dramatic development follows years of campaigning by unions after it was discovered that more than 3,200 names, mainly of building workers, were kept on the list, drawn up by a shadowy organisation called The Consulting Association.

Workers involved claimed they were denied work, often for merely raising legitimate concerns about health and safety on building sites.

Legal action is being taken on behalf of some of those on the list.

The eight firms, some of which have strong Scottish connections through their operating history, announced that they are working together to develop a scheme to compensate construction workers whose names were on The Consulting Association (TCA) database.

A statement said: "The companies - Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI PLC - all apologise for their involvement with TCA and the impact that its database may have had on any individual construction worker.

"The companies have joined together to establish the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme.

"The scheme is intended to make it as simple as possible for any worker with a legitimate claim to access compensation.

"The companies have invited workers' representatives to enter into a period of engagement to ensure that the proposed terms of the scheme are fair and effective. The group is also engaging with other interested parties.

"At this time we are not able to share any further information on the proposed scheme. However, once engagement with the workers' representatives has concluded, we will announce full details of the scheme which we would like to open to applicants as soon as possible.

"We have discussed the scheme with a number of other construction companies.

"We encourage participation from across the industry and would welcome interest from any company that had been a user of, or subscriber to, TCA.

"The companies involved in the scheme would support the introduction of a code of conduct to ensure nothing like this can happen within the construction industry again."