Workers union Unison is calling for a “proper investigation” into major Carillion shareholders, including BlackRock, to find out if workers' pensions were used to bet on the firm’s share price falling, just days before Carillion collapsed.

In a letter to the committee, Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis said it is important to know if firms such as BlackRock, which was responsible for running the construction firm's defined benefit contribution scheme, used Carillion worker’s pension money to bet against the firm.

Prentis has urged the Work and Pensions select committee chair Frank Field to take a close look at BlackRock, Henderson Global Investors, UBS and Standard Life, who all banked on the firms stock falling.

He said: “Serious questions need to be asked as to whether the behaviour of some asset management firms in the days before Carillion’s collapse ultimately led to its demise.

“In the case of BlackRock, there could be a very real conflict of interest, especially if it was playing the markets with the pensions of Carillion workers, who now face a very uncertain future.”

Furthermore, Prentis believes the Disclosure of Voting Principles, introduced after the 2007 financial crash to show how asset managers voted at company Annual General Meetings (AGM), should be made compulsory.

Asset managers involved in Carillion shorting have refused to disclose their votes publicly, despite 98 per cent agreeing to remuneration packages for Carillion’s board of directors, months before its first profit warning.

“It shouldn’t be so easy for firms to refuse to disclose how they vote at company AGMs when they are acting on behalf of the retirements of many thousands of employees. The voluntary approach is clearly not working. The time has come for a tougher approach to corporate governance rules.”

Field has signalled his intention to look into the actions of Carillion’s major shareholders, and on Friday, blasted The Pensions Regulator for “sniffing around the company since 2008, clearly to no effect”.

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