Massive penalties against CFMEU and its officials slashed

The union’s NSW construction branch and its officials still must pay penalties totalling $435,000, including one to be personally paid by its assistant state secretary.

The unlawful CFMMEU picket of Botany Cranes in 2019. Source: ABCC.

The CFMEU has succeeded in significantly reducing more than $1 million in penalties imposed on the union and three officials for unlawfully picketing a Sydney crane company.

But the union’s NSW construction branch and its officials still must pay combined penalties totalling more than $435,000, including a $43,000 penalty that must be personally paid by the union’s assistant state secretary Michael Greenfield.

Following the union’s appeal, a full court of the Federal Court also set aside orders that the union pay compensation to the NSW Police, Botany Cranes, and the company’s operations manager Rhonda Hodges.

Locked in a dispute with the union after refusing to agree to an enterprise agreement, Botany Cranes believed an employee and union delegate, Howard Byrnes, was providing advance information about the company’s jobs, allowing the union to sabotage the business.

When asked whether someone was tipping off the union, Mr Byrnes said: “Maybe sign the EBA and it will stop.” Not believing his denials, Botany Cranes terminated his employment.

Senior union officials organised a 50-strong picket outside the company, with assistant state secretary Rob Kera declaring the union would “fight to the death” to get Mr Byrnes re­instated.

When Ms Hodges arrived for work, she heard the picketers say “Here’s one of them” and “They’re a bunch of dogs”. She said she cried, feeling fearful and ill.

Mr Greenfield told the company it was going to get “really bad for you” unless Mr Byrnes got his job back and the company signed the EBA. The company caved in.

As part of the more than $1 million in penalties imposed on the union and the officials, which also included state president Rita Mallia, the primary judge ordered the union pay $30,000 to Botany Cranes, $2,500 to Ms Hodges and $15,000 to the NSW Police Force.

During the appeal proceedings, Ms Hodges said the penalties previously imposed were “minor for the PTSD that she suffered at the hands of the CFMEU”.

The full court upheld the union appeal that it committed single contraventions rather than multiple contraventions of the law. It said the primary judge erred in several aspects and wrongly exercised discretion.

However, in awarding significant penalties, the full court said the union and the officials engaged in deliberate unlawful conduct.

It said the union countenanced its officials operating with stubborn disregard for industrial laws that stand in the way of achieving the union’s industrial imperatives.