Gold Coast tower boss blasts union CFMEU protest as a ‘stunt’

The building firm behind a Southport tower which faced protest action this morning says it is frustrated by what it labelled a union “publicity stunt”.

CFMEU national construction secretary David Noonan, plasterers Troy Clothier and Isaac Nelson and CFMEU Gold Coast Rep Scott Vink protesting in Southport today.

The building firm behind a Southport tower which faced protest action this morning says it is frustrated by what it labelled a union “publicity stunt”.

Plastering contractors at from the building, simply known as 120 Marine Parade, claim they lost the job after raising concerns about plaster and fire safety standards during construction. They protested in front of the site this morning with members of the construction union, the CFMEU.

Troy Clothier claimed he and a fellow employee were let go in June after repeatedly raising their concerns with the construction company.

But Gordon Wallace from Philip Usher Constructions rubbished the allegations when contacted by the Bulletin, and accused the CFMEU, who led the protest, of hijacking the issue.

“No one has been removed from the site for raising a genuine issue regarding safety — absolutely not, that’s absolute nonsense,” he said.

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Mr Wallace slammed the “irresponsible” CFMEU for failing to notify the company of its concerns directly.

“We’re disappointed, to say the least, that no one from the union saw fit to either in writing or in person introduce themselves or say what the issue was,” he said.

“What’s been put up on those placards is highly inflammatory, alarming, totally defamatory and completely untrue.”

CFMEU protest on the Gold Coast Highway.

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Mr Wallace told the Bulletin the site was non-unionised, and had roughly 400 people, mostly small subcontractors working on the building.

“You have the union who want to use this as leverage and try and unionise something that isn’t,” he said.

“They’re drawing attention to themselves and making it look like they care about the workers.”

Gold Coast CFMEU representative Scott Vink was on site this morning.

“If there is a fire it is probably going to be a tragedy,” Mr Vink alleged.

“I have brought it up many times, with my superiors in regards to how it is carried out and it is all wrong, and we actually got terminated,” Mr Clothier alleged.

“We were told to leave site for speaking out about it and were served a prohibition notice not to return.”

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Mr Wallace said the company had been forced to defend itself to “virtually every authority” involved with construction and public safety and the structure of the building had been “scrutinised ad nauseam”.

Mr Wallace claimed an investigation by the QBCC, prompted by a similar complaint, found the building was in order.

“Because of this complaint we had to get fresh certification to prove that we are squeaky clean … we’ve had it certified and recertified,” Mr Wallace said.

“(The QBCC) have to come down and check, and we obtained a further structural engineer’s certification, subsequent to the complaint — that was readily done.

“If there was something genuine they would have written to us, they would have contacted the right authorities but none of that has happened, and all of a sudden we wake up in the morning and find a demonstration from a union.”