Senior TWU officials allegedly forced members to pay into super fund that they were paid hundreds of thousands in fees as directors

SENIOR officials of the Transport Workers’ Union were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees as directors of the union super fund — which they allegedly forced union members to pay in to.

Paul Bracegirdle, truck driver for Toll, outside the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption in Perth.

SENIOR officials of the Transport Workers’ Union were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees as directors of the union super fund — which they forced union members to pay in to.

When union members tried to change super funds they were told “to eff off”, the Royal Commission into Trade Union corruption heard today.

Counsel assisting the Commission Jeremy Stoljar said the Commission would investigate whether those payments from the super fund represented a bribe or unlawful payment for union bosses to force all members to pay their superannuation into TWUSUPER — a cheque estimated to be worth half a billion dollars a year.

Mr Stoljar said TWUSUPER was paying around $200,000 in directors fees a year and that at all times at least four of the nine directors of the super fund were the most senior officials of the union.

Michael Kaine, the head of the union’s enterprise agreement negotiating team that fought to keep all members super payments in TWUSUPER, was also a director on the board of TWUSUPER.

The super fund was also paying the union around $500,000 in reimbursement of salaries and expenses for a number of TWU Superannuation Liaison Officers and was pumping in a further $100,000 in sponsorship.

Jim McGiveron, Secretary of the Transport Workers Union addresses a meeting. One union member claims that when asked if he could change super funds McGiveron told him to ‘eff off’. Picture: Ross Swanborough.

Toll truck driver Paul Bracegirdle told the Commission, which is sitting in Perth this week, that he tried to change super funds because he was “hoping to afford the best future I could” for his disabled daughter.

He raised the issue with his TWU union delegate Jim McGiveron, the WA branch president, and was allegedly told he should “eff off and no one cares Paul, go away.”

“This response was coming from a fella who up until recently was sitting on the bloody board of TWU Super in charge of what, $5 billion or more,” claimed Mr Bracegirdle.

He eventually launched a petition and managed to negotiate a three month window for existing employees to change funds but the situation has reverted back now to all members paying into TWUSUPER.

“I am told that the TWU has 100,000 members and Toll only has 10,000 employees. If Toll employees are all on about the same super as me, that’s a $50 million cheque. If there are 100,000 TWU workers across Australia, that’s all of a sudden a $500 million cheque per annum,” he said.