CFMMEU’s Dean Rielly taken to court six times by ABCC, which Anthony Albanese is abolishing

The building regulator has taken this CFMMEU troublemaker to court six times, including for allegedly threatening to get a bat and “start swinging it” unless a construction company used union “guys”.

EXCLUSIVE

The building regulator the ­Albanese government plans to abolish has taken this CFMMEU troublemaker to court six times since 2020, including for allegedly threatening to get a bat and “start swinging it” unless a construction company employed union “guys”.

Dean Rielly describes his activities as “kicking ass for the working class”, but in one case a Federal Circuit Court judge found he engaged in a “form of industrial stalking of employers”, who were constructing a new Coffs Harbour hospital.

In another case still pending, Mr Rielly is accused of repeatedly ignoring requests to do a safety briefing at an Armidale school upgrade then pushing past a site manager using his shoulder while speaking like a football commentator and saying “he puts a step in and goes around him”.

Mr Rielly denies the accusations against him.

CFMMEU official Dean Rielly, who is a respondent in multiple court actions brought by the ABCC. Source: Facebook

Perhaps the most startling allegations against Mr Rielly come from a Pacific Motorway project at Yatala south of ­Brisbane. On October 27 last year, Mr Rielly – who lives near Grafton – went to the site to raise concerns about emergency procedures, but allegedly breached the Fair Work (FW) Act by ignoring health and safety requirements.

According to ABCC court documents, after entering the site Mr Rielly allegedly said to a project manager who was in a carpark: “You need to start by using our subcontractors. We wouldn’t have these issues if you had our guys.”

The project manager (PM) replied: “Who are your guys?”

Mr Rielly: “You tell me who you need and I will tell you their names. If you don’t start doing what I tell you I will go to my car, grab my bat and start swinging it around.”

PM: “Are you saying you are going to hit me? Are you threatening me?”

Mr Rielly: “I never said I’m going to hit you. I might just start swinging it around the carpark.”

PM: “I am in the carpark, so are you still threatening me?”

Mr Rielly leading a union march. Source: Facebook

Mr Rielly: “No I would just swing it around the carpark.”

He is accused of then saying he “might see what I can do to” stop the company from ­winning a lucrative upcoming contract.

The ABCC alleges Mr Rielly “acted in a manner that was aggressive and threatening”, in breach of the FW Act. It is seeking a personal payment order against him and other union officials. Mr Rielly denies the accusations. He also denies any wrongdoing in the Armidale school case.

Last week, Mr Rielly was personally penalised $8820 for causing a concrete pour to be abandoned on a NSW highway project near Ballina. An appeal over liability and penalty has been flagged.

He was penalised $10,000 in the Coffs Harbour Hospital case. Mr Rielly did not respond to requests for comment.

CFMMEU official Dean Rielly, (left) who is a respondent in multiple court actions brought by the ABCC. Source: Facebook

WATCHDOG CHASES OFFICIAL OVER ‘THREATS AND ABUSE’

A CFMMEU official who addressed the NSW Labor Party’s annual state conference allegedly threatened to “make life hard” for builders of a Woolworths warehouse and abused a site manager after moving to within 10cm of his face.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission last week commenced legal action against the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union and Arron Platt, accusing the official of repeatedly using offensive language while exercising his right of entry to the warehouse site in Auburn in March this year.

Mr Platt allegedly became abusive and called a site manager a “c..t” after discovering managers and safety officials had started an inspection of “suspected contraventions” without him.

CFMMEU organiser Arron Platt addresses the NSW Labor conference in 2018. Picture: NSW Labor's Facebook page

The ABCC, which the Albanese government has promised to abolish, is seeking a personal penalty of up to $13,320 against Mr Platt over the alleged breach of the Fair Work Act. The authority is also pursuing a penalty of as much as $66,600 against the CFMMEU.

The union’s construction division national secretary Dave Noonan told The Daily Telegraph the “case will be strongly defended”.

Mr Platt did not respond to requests for comment. In June 2018, he formally addressed the NSW Labor Party annual conference, calling the ABCC “rotten”.

Federal Opposition spokeswoman on Workplace Relations Michaelia Cash questioned the union’s links to Labor.

“We know the CFMMEU is at the heart of the Labor Party – in fact they are at the heart of the Albanese Government,” Ms Cash said.

“The CFMMEU money goes into Labor and favourable policy comes out of the government. Where’s the integrity and transparency they supposedly stood for when campaigning?”

LABOR’S GIFT TO ‘RECIDIVIST OFFENDERS’

Analysis by John Rolfe

“It is more important than ever we give Australians access to a workplace system based on fairness, mutual trust and respect – not on ­conflict.”

This is what federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said in a July media release announcing the new Albanese government would wind back the Australian Building and Construction Commission’s powers to the “bare legal minimum”. Then remove it completely.

There wasn’t too much workplace respect on show on January 25, 2019, when 50 CFMMEU members unlawfully picketed Botany Cranes. It wasn’t very fair to reduce the Botany Cranes female operations manager to tears after she and others were called “dogs”.

For that behaviour, the Federal Circuit Court fined the union and several of its most senior officials more than $1m. The penalty size is being appealed, but not the underlying conduct.

Supplied Editorial The unlawful CFMMEU picket of Botany Cranes in 2019. Source: ABCC

In bringing those proceedings, the ABCC alleged the aims of the unlawful picketing and threats included coercing Botany Cranes to sign up to a CFMMEU enterprise agreement.

The fines were for breaches of the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act, which Mr Burke intends to repeal.

This month, Federal Circuit Court Judge Salvatore Vasta said the maximum penalties in the Fair Work Act were insufficient to deter the CFMMEU. He urged federal parliament to increase the size of available fines.

Instead, the government is reducing the scale and range of penalties.

Removing the ABCC would mean there was no dedicated cop on the beat to keep watch on a union that courts have repeatedly described as a “recidivist offender”.

Mr Burke sees it differently, telling The Daily Telegraph “there is no need for another layer of bureaucracy”.

In his July media release, Mr Burke said the ABCC “wastes taxpayers’ money on trivial nonsense like what stickers a worker might have on their helmet”.

However, there is no evidence that the ABCC has ever prosecuted — or even investigated — such a thing.

I asked Mr Burke to point to a single example to support his claim. Nothing was forthcoming.

The CFMMEU’s latest newsletter to members says it plain and simple — “we have done our job”, it begins, having “manned the polling booths” and “worked the phones” to help get Labor elected. Then it says: “The ALP made commitments to the trade union movement, NOW LET’S HOLD THEM TO ACCOUNT!”