A Federal Court judgment last week took penalties awarded against the CFMMEU in cases brought by the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) beyond $8 million.

In Queensland alone, penalties have now reached $2.68 million after CFMMEU and officials were penalised $58,500 following attempts to coerce a crane company into an enterprise agreement.

The penalties were handed down to the CFMMEU, its State Secretary Michael Ravbar and fellow union official Andrew Sutherland over their unlawful action on the Legacy Way Port Connect Project in 2012.

Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, Kelly O’Dwyer, said it was a critical test of Opposition leader Bill Shorten’s leadership with the penalties handed to Mr Ravbar, the CFMMEU Queensland boss and Labor Party National Executive member.

“Bill Shorten has given a lawbreaking union boss a seat at the Labor Party’s most powerful table giving him a say about the party’s policy platform and decision-making,” Minister O’Dwyer said.

“This is a test of Bill Shorten’s character – he must demonstrate leadership and remove Michael Ravbar from his National Executive and sever ties with the CFMMEU, including refusing any more CFMMEU donations.”

“The decision provides all the evidence you need to know about how bullying, intimidation and harassment would return to Australia’s construction sites under Labor, who have promised to scrap the building and construction watchdog the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).”

“This is a textbook example of how Bill Shorten will let lawbreakers become the lawmakers.”

Minister O’Dwyer said the CFMMEU has now been penalised over $16 million for unlawful conduct in cases brought by the ABCC and its predecessors, with 80 of its representatives currently before the courts.

The burgeoning penalties incurred by the CFMMEU for its persistent law-breaking come ahead of next month’s Federal Election, with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) promising to scrap the ABCC if it wins government.

In a Weekend Australian article on 13 April, Australian Resources and Energy Group AREEA told journalist Ewin Hannan the importance of the ABCC and how unions would be gifted a right to further their law-breaking by the ALP.

“There is no doubt the CFMMEU will be millions of dollars better off if Labor wins and abolishes the ABCC,” AREEA Chief Executive Steve Knott said.

“Weekly fines for open contempt of Australia’s workplace laws are a major cost of doing business for the union, even if its unprecedented financial power means such fines are akin to a drop in the ocean.”

While the penalties themselves appear not to be an effective deterrent, the ABCC has brought to the public’s attention the intimidation and coercive behaviour of CFMMEU representatives on Australian building sites.

“However, with the regulator gone, subcontractors, non-union members and building site managers subject to such behaviour will have nowhere to turn, and the escalating lawbreaking of the CFMMEU will be hidden from the view of the wider community,” Mr Knott said.

‘No ticket, no start’

A story in today’s Australian Financial Review highlighted the CFMMEU’s continued lawlessness, reporting employers are experiencing the union’s enforcement of a new “no ticket, no start” approach at major work sites.

The Master Builders Association has raised concerns with the CFMMEU that demands for compulsory union membership, illegal but common in Victoria and Queensland, has now spread to NSW where it has not been seen in 15 years.

The report detailed a letter had been sent to the CFMEU NSW, MBA state construction director Peter Glover told the union the employer group had “received a number of reports from our members that your branch of the union has commenced a ‘no ticket, no start’ campaign on Sydney construction sites.

Full Court increases penalties in nine Brisbane sites appeal

In another case highlighting the CFMMEU’s illegal behaviour, the Full Federal Court last week upheld the ABCC’s appeal to increase penalties awarded against the union over 16 strikes and work stoppages at nine Brisbane construction sites in August and September 2016.

The ABCC appealed the original decision arguing the Court had not imposed penalties for all of the unlawful conduct committed by the CFMMEU.

The union and officials have now been penalised a total of $668,000, an increase of $146,000.

The 2016 unlawful industrial action was aimed at coercing a major contractor to only employ subcontractors who had entered into an enterprise agreement with the CFMMEU.

At the time of the 2016 conduct the ABCC successfully obtained an injunction to prevent further strikes and work stoppages.

“The overall conduct involved a deliberate, premeditated and sustained campaign of unlawful industrial behaviour orchestrated by the union, including elements of intimidation, threat and coercion,” the Full Court judgment said.

The Court also found the “union intended that loss be suffered” and “…senior officers of the union orchestrated the campaign against Hutchinson.”

ABCC takes court action against ACT CFMMEU over alleged unlawful picket and coercion

The ABCC has also commenced Federal Court action in the ACT alleging the CFMMEU and five officials attempted to coerce a Canberra-based civil engineering company to make an enterprise agreement with the CFMMEU.

In its statement of claim the ABCC is alleging the CFMMEU and its officials –– ACT secretary Jason O’Mara; assistant branch secretary Zachary Smith; and organisers Kenneth Miller; Lorenzo White and Joshua Bolitho organised an unlawful picket to coerce the company to make an enterprise agreement with the union.

In its statement of claim the ABCC is alleging at or around 5.30am on Monday 14 May 2018, a group of between 12 and 20 people, including O’Mara, Miller, Smith, White and Bolitho engaged in obstructive picketing by:

• Parking two cars immediately in front of the main entrance gate to the project site blocking vehicle access and partially blocking pedestrian access to the main entrance gate
• Congregating in a group at the main entrance of the project site and linking arms to block pedestrian and vehicle access
• Placing and securing chains and locks on various gates and gluing locks on other project site gates, including the main truck access gate.
• During the two and a half hour picket, which was attended by the ACT police, picketers engaged in pushing and shoving with workers who were trying to access the site.
• A CFMMEU official told a group of workers who were trying to enter the site “You have to go through me to get in”.

AREEA will continue to advocate for the retention of the ABCC in the lead-up to the 2019 Federal Election and beyond, with its new jurisdiction to enforce IR compliance in the offshore construction sector particularly critical for Australia securing final investment decision on the next wave of potential offshore hyrdrocarbons projects. For more information, contact [email protected].