Transport Workers Union chiefs got fees from TWUSUPER fund, royal commission hears

SENIOR officials of the Transport Workers Union were paid as directors of the super fund that they forced union members to pay in to.

TWO delegate Jim McGiveron / Picture: Ross Swanborough

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

When members tried to change super funds they were told “to eff off”, the royal commission into trade union corruption heard yesterday.

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

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

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

The super fund was also paying the union about $500,000 in reimbursement of salaries and expenses for TWUSUPER liaison officers and a further $100,000 in sponsorship.

Toll truck driver Paul Bracegirdle told the commission, sitting in Perth this week, he tried to change funds “hoping to afford the best future I could” for his disabled daughter. He raised the issue with TWU delegate Jim McGiveron, the WA president, and was 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,” Mr Bracegirdle said. He launched a petition and negotiated a three-month window for existing employees to change funds but the situation has reverted to all members paying into TWUSUPER.

“I am told the TWU has 100,000 members. If there are 100,000 TWU workers, that’s ... a $500 million cheque per annum,” he said.

News_Image_File: Paul Bracegirdle, truck driver for Toll, outside the royal commission / Picture: Ross Swanborough