‘CFMEU are out of control’: What you said about scrapped BPIC

A war of words has erupted after the LNP government temporarily suspended the controversial BPIC policy. HAVE YOUR SAY

Members of the Queensland Electrical Trades Union and other Unions rallied in Brisbane to defend the CFMEU. Picture: Tertius Pickard

The Crisafulli-led LNP Government has sensationally suspended the Best Practice Industry Conditions (BPIC) on major state construction projects, with unions threatening to take to the streets to protect workers’ rights.

The state government made the move to temporarily suspend the CFMEU’s controversial tax, citing the need to save taxpayer money and expedite project timelines.

BPIC, which was introduced by the previous Labor government, included various worker perks and conditions, such as extra pay for using personal mobile phones, safety meetings, and limits on the use of labour hire.

The LNP argues that BPIC increased project costs, reduced productivity, fearing they could prevent the construction of thousands of homes by 2030.

While the government insists the suspension will lead to billions in savings and maintain worker safety and pay, the unions are strongly oppose the move.

Two CFMEU members got removed by security and police after shouting during the Queensland Major Contractors Association Breakfast in Brisbane. Picture: Tertius Pickard

They warn it will cause delays, reduce wages and increase safety risks, arguing that removing BPIC will undermine workers’ rights and result in lower-quality, less safe working conditions.

Some construction industry leaders agree with the government, arguing that BPICs contribute to inefficiencies, while others, like Hutchinson Builders, contend that industry-wide labour shortages and high demand are the real cause of delays.

The BPIC suspension will remain in place until the government reviews the policy, with the establishment of a Productivity Commission expected by early next year.

Unions have vowed to protest and warn that the suspension will lead to more strikes and worse conditions for workers.

Many readers welcomed the government’s move, saying the suspension will not impact on the union’s ability to maintain safe working conditions.

Others called for the savings to be invested in front line health, emergency services and the education sectors.

See what you had to say below and join the conversation >>>

WHAT YOU SAID

The honeymoon is over for the CFMEU

Alf

I support responsible unionism, after 45 years in what can be a very hazardous industry. the majority want to do the right thing. after working both in a supervisory and trade environment, I have witnessed the workers who rise to stardom in the union movement have shown very little interest in doing work or safety. the closer they get to the pinnacle, the main interest in safety is an excuse to bung on a stoush.

Voter

The CFMEU don’t realise their days of getting what they want are gone. They went too far and many government job sites will be closed. Once they have used up their redundancy money (which btw should not but is used for strike pay) they will find themself unemployable. If I were premier I’d simply shut down everything for a year or two. The majority of voters would accept that this is the cost of unwinding this craziness.

Steve

The BPIC always failed the pub test and commonsense approach, but the problem was those in the Labor/CFMEU bubble refuse to see or acknowledge this. By stating that safety conditions will suffer shows that they’re grasping at straws trying to stay relevant.

Ronald

Bob Hawke sacked the BLF for doing bad things. Now it’s time for CFMEU to be gone also. We need to be prosperous individuals not dictated to by communistic Unions.

Carnbee

As a retired old curmudgeon Human Resource and IR professional, I comment that the “best practice industry principals” conditions are anything but “best practice”. That term has a quite specific meaning within the organisational literature: specifically that there is NO best practice, rather a consistent drive for improvement. Just as athletes and swimmers might break their current PB they are always striving to do better. I have seen little evidence that mindset is in play with BPIC or the CFMEU, or even the employers.

Marc

How does this prevent unions from monitoring safety on worksites? It doesn’t! It just means the barrels have less pork for the union mates. Shock – builders might actually have to build stuff to get paid.

Congratulating the new government

Ron

Well done, Jarrod Bleijie. The CFMEU are out of control and must be deregistered. The vast majority of the public (regardless of voting preferences) are well and truly on side with the government on this one. Negotiate fair wages and conditions for the construction sector – fair. Then, watch the costs of construction come back to where it should be and delivered on time.

Fair competition

I applaud the new government for this common sense approach. BPIC was totally unreasonable and unsustainable and I do think that threats of more deaths on sites are pretty unsubstantiated. Of course construction workers deserve a fair wage and safety standards that take their welfare and wellbeing into account. However BPIC is not the answer; it is an administrative nightmare and, in a way is anti-competitive as it drives (smaller) contractors away from the tendering process because they cannot or don’t want to deal with the absurd stipulations. Ideally, minimum wages should be regulated in the national awards and safety should be regulated through national safety standards by safe work Australia. If the national awards are insufficient, then that needs to be looked at. The argument that union workers deliver better standards of work combined with increased productivity is also flawed. Trade qualifications are not awarded by the unions and purely joining a union doesn’t make you a better tradesperson. By itself, I have nothing against unions, provided freedom of association is adhered to and pre-qualification for tendering on projects doesn’t include having signed onto a union endorsed convoluted EBA.

Jason

Use the savings from the CMFEU tax to employ more front line nurses/teachers/police etc and then offer them pay increases if they can come up with productivity increases. I’m sure the front line personnel can come up with apps etc to increase productivity to make up for pay increases. it only takes people on the ground to say where the bottlenecks are to find out how to fix it. It’s not about sacking people it’s about working together to find ways to improve the system and give back some of the savings in wage increases.

Rosslyn

The CFMEU have been causing chaos and hatred among our workers for too long. We have still had deaths in the last few years have they forgotten their unfortunate comrades? Let’s now have peace with our workers and now get down to work. Thank you Jarrod.

Strap in for a roller coaster ride

Robyn

So the pendulum swings. The CFMEU has negotiated BPIC for its members. It’s been good for them, but it is now over. What will happen now? There will be lots of huffing and puffing about productivity, safety and reduced wages and conditions. Everyone knows that there are shortages of workers to get construction projects started and there is much to be done – Olympic infrastructure, hospitals, highways, housing, schools etc. it totals over $100 Billion in the next 4 years. Workers have only one major bargaining tool – their time and effort. There is a shortage of skilled and experienced tradies. What I suspect they will do is threaten not to work on projects that don’t have BPIC. They will go to sites that do. The construction industry will then engage labour hire companies to get work done. This will result in industrial action by the Union. The net result is that some projects won’t happen. This will solve the budget problem for the government. Projects won’t go ahead. Rather than an orderly process to determine these matters it will be random and disorderly. The chaos that follows will be costly but the government won’t take responsibility for the situation. It will simply blame the Unions. For all those people that think the solution will be easy – you are mistaken. The reset within the building and construction industry hasn’t finished it’s just starting. Strap yourself in for a roller coaster ride.

Andrew

It appears as though Queensland is heading back to the good old days of “ Work Choices” and Federal Award Rates of pay. Nobody else other than Government employees are Federal Award Rates of pay..... except by bottom of the barrel private employers … that employment seekers really don’t want to work for in the first place. All this ‘modelling’ about 22,000 extra houses and increasing rents by 7% has the operative word “could” Houses are at least 30% overvalued. Have been for decades. It is also a case that houses are not good value for money when looking at the cost and quality of the materials used to construct them. Most of the houses being sold and or rented today are at least a few years old. No doubt many of these houses are closer to 10 and 20 years old, if not older. The cost to build these houses was incurred years ago. The sale prices of these older houses and asking rents are the result of the Real Estate sector talking up ‘expectations’ to improve their commission based profits. What people are paying for houses and in rent are not the result of 20,000 Queensland based CFMEU members being paid too much. The cost of houses and rent in Queensland for the main a consequence of people being approved to borrow money their normal incomes cannot repay. These white collar associations, like the Master Builders and Queensland Major Contractors Association are pointing the finger at the CFMEU rather than facing the music over the 2832 building companies that went bust in 2023/24 or the 1800 the year before. In July 2024 it was reported. Two companies that made up a major Queensland construction firm have collapsed, leaving nearly 1000 creditors more than $80 million out of pocket. The cited causes for top 10 building company collapses in the last 3 years … financial mismanagement, project delays, using Firm Fixed Price contracts, Legal disputes, and Supply Chain issues. Members of white-collar professional associations … not members of the CFMEU.

Fay

If this means workers are forced to work in 75% humidity and 35 to 40 degree heat I don’t agree with the process the LNP just did, that is how men get killed especially in our summer heat and on big construction sites on hot days.

LNP have conveniently left out the fact that it is no only humidity that slows projects down it is also temperature and I do hope the CFMEU are wrong and no lives are lost because the LNP want to make a point.

Brett

Let’s bring in the cheap labour from China and Philippines, that will get everything built at quarter the costs.

Private

BPIC drove smaller companies away from tendering, allowing larger multi nationals that are complicit in supporting Union action. Big construction companies have been just as bad, in compounding bad behaviour for their own benefit.

Display Name

Negotiations, Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA’s), Consultation, Discussions, Forums, Legal Wages Restructuring, Entitlements, Safety regulations and then simply calm processes in going forward. We must identify the Stakeholders at every level and sit around a big round table. CFMEU blokes will not respond to draconian ‘tough’ methods, or having their current benefits eroded. And there’s no ‘number plate slogan’ to fix this situation which may become a stalemate, stand-off if not handled intelligently.

Originally published as ‘CFMEU are out of control’: What you said about scrapped BPIC