Yet Shorten and the ALP still are reliant on this Unions support, even after years of criminal activity...‘Deplorable’ CFMEU fined $105,000
The Australian
3:23PM February 26, 2018
The Federal Court has criticised the construction union’s “deplorable” record of law breaking, imposing $105,000 in penalties on the union and a shop steward for trying to impose a “no ticket no start” policy on a Melbourne building site.
Federal Court judge Richard Tracey reiterated previous court findings that the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union showed a repeated disregard for the law, spending millions of dollars of union funds on penalties when the money could have been used to benefit members.
The Australian Building and Construction Commission provided evidence that the CFMEU had contravened the federal workplace laws on 135 separate occasions over 15 years.
“The CFMEU has accumulated a deplorable record of contravening civil remedy provisions of the Act and its predecessors,’’ Justice Tracey said.
The ABCC had accused Melbourne painting and decorating company Arteam and its director Michael Hanna of joining forces with the CFMEU to pressure a cash-strapped worker to join the union and immediately pay hundreds of dollars in union dues.
The court previously imposed penalties of $17,600 on Arteam and $2400 against Mr Hanna.
In his judgment today, Justice Tracey said the CFMEU shop steward Godwin Farrugia was trying to enforce a no ticket no start policy at the Quest Apartments site in Tullamarine in 2014.
He told two workers who had fallen behind in their union dues that they could not work until they were paid up. One worker asked to be given a month to pay his dues as he had not worked for three months and had household bills. He was given two days to pay.
Justice Tracey said neither the CFMEU nor Mr Farrugia exhibited any contrition for their misconduct.
“The irresistible inference is that the CFMEU, acting through its site-based officials, persists in insisting on union membership as a condition for working on construction sites which it regards as ‘union sites’,’’ he said.
“At the very least it condones the actions of its onsite officials. Such misconduct continues notwithstanding the CFMEU and its officials being aware, as a result of the various judgments, that it is proscribed by various provisions of the Act.”
The ABCC told the court that the construction and general divisions of the CFMEU’s Victorian and Tasmanian branch received revenue of $30,958,899 in 2016. It had a net surplus of $226,856 and net assets valued at $58,517,458, including $9.23 million in cash or cash equivalents.
The court imposed near-maximum penalties against the CFMEU of $95,000 and Mr Farrugia was penalised $10,000.
ABCC commissioner Stephen McBurney said there was no place for “no ticket no start” practices on Australian construction sites and the case was a clear example of why workers’ rights to freedom of association must be protected.
“This was not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern frequently seen on construction sites where workers are wrongly, and unlawfully, told that membership of a union is a mandatory condition of employment on the site,” Mr McBurney said.
“The law is clear. Workers are protected from discrimination or victimisation due to their membership, or non-membership, of a union. To threaten someone else’s livelihood because they exercise their right to decide whether to join or not join a union is unacceptable and unlawful.”
Some even keep repeating the lie that the CFMEU have never been successfully charges with any malfeasance.
