Labor MP Cesar Melhem accused of taking $225k for memberships

UPDATE: LABOR MP Cesar Melhem was in charge when the AWU incorrectly invoiced $225,000 as training fees that was used for union membership, it has been revealed.

Victorian state secretary of the AWU, Cesar Melhem stands with BlueScope Steel workers in Hastings which today announced 200 job cuts.

THE political crisis surrounding embattled Labor MP Cesar Melhem has deepened, as it was revealed he was in charge when the AWU incorrectly invoiced $225,000 as training fees that was actually used for union membership.

Mr Melhem was grilled for a second day in the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.

He used the phrase “I don’t recall” 27 times on Tuesday in answer to questions, after relying on the term 97 terms in his evidence on Monday.

Jeremy Stoljar, counsel assisting the commission, accused Mr Melhem of using payments from building company Winslow to increase his union’s membership figures.

“The total amount invoiced in those invoices we just looked at is well over $225,000,” he said.

“It was all accounted for as membership contribution. It was all under your watch. And all of those invoices I took you to suggest that they are for OH & S or EEO training, and, in fact, they are for membership fees.”

Mr Melhem again denied any wrong doing, saying that it was common for companies to pay union membership for their staff.

“It is quite a public knowledge that all employees who are working for Winslow construction, the subdivision business, including the employees themselves, that the company have paid their membership fees. That was no secret,” he said.

The Australian Workers Union tried to correct the invoices to Winslow in March this year, after they were requested by the commission.

Mr Melhem was also accused of being in charged when the AWU accepted a $25,000 payment from building company Downer to end a picket line.

The payment was invoiced as OHS training, but in fact went to two former AWU delegates who had been made redundant when a development of an offshore gas platform was nearing completion.

Mr Melhem denied he knew that they money was going to the workers and became angry at questions from Mr Stoljar.

Cesar Melhem as Victorian state secretary of the AWU in 2011.

“I get given a file before I get in the witness box and you expect me to remember things and give you an answer,” he said.

“I wasn’t involved in the details of settling the dispute and that’s a fact.”

Downer was losing $1 million a day in lost production when the picket line was in place at the Essendon Airport helipad.

The union first invoiced the company in 2012 for $25,000 for OHS training, which was never provided.

But former AWU delegates Predrag Susa and Jamie Spencer each received $12,500 from the payment, evidence tendered to the commission suggests.

On March 3 this year current AWU secretary Ben Davis sent Downer a revised invoice showing that it was for “settlement of employees claims” the documents state.

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