COURT proceedings will resume today in a case that could force construction companies to pay compensation to hundreds of blacklisted workers.

Law firm Leigh Day will pursue 571 workers’ High Court claims after talks between unions and big builders broke down.

General union GMB, which has campaigned on the issue alongside Ucatt and Unite, said management plans from eight companies would cost them just 2 per cent of their profits.

GMB national officer Justin Bowden said the union would be stepping up its “crocodile tears” tour — which names and shames blacklisting managers — in the new year.

He said the “so-called professionals” who ran the blacklist “need to either apologise, come clean and say what they did, or get used to accounting in public for the damage they did.”