Bosses demand Labor ban on ’egregious’ CFMEU EBA clauses

Employers say the CFMEU administrator’s ‘business as usual’ approach to bargaining will not address the union’s ‘disgraceful’ illegal tactics.

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith accuses employers of ’crawling out from under the rocks’ to attack workers’ conditions. Picture: NewsWire / Aaron Francis

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Construction industry employers are demanding the Albanese government ban “egregious” pro-CFMEU clauses from enterprise agreements, warning that the ‘business as usual” approach to bargaining by the union administrator will not address the union’s “disgraceful” illegal tactics.

In a letter to Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt, the heads of Master Builders Australia, the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Constructors Association and the Civil Contractors Federation called on him to remove agreement clauses that give the union the right of veto over the use of subcontractors; require subcontractors be paid the same as those engaged by the head contractor; and give unfettered rights to officials to attend worker inductions and enter workplaces.

The industry body chief executives want such clauses in existing agreements rendered to be of no effect; the Fair Work Commission banned from approving any agreement with the clauses; and new offences created where unions seek to impose deals that are not genuinely agreed.

Senator Watt recently hosted a meeting between employer chiefs and the CFMEU administrator, Mark Irving, where the business groups said Mr Irving signalled he intended to take a “business as usual” approach to bargaining between union officials and companies.

“The past business as usual approach of the CFMEU has been disgraceful and should not be condoned, let alone perpetuated,” the employer chiefs said in the letter, obtained by The Australian. “The administrator’s proposed course risks repeating the mistakes of the past and reflects a failure to grapple with a core part of the behaviour that was a catalyst for the current crises in our industry.”

They said much of the CFMEU’s lengthy history of unlawful conduct arose from action designed to coerce employers into agreeing to the clauses and “such content has, in turn, perpetuated the ingrained industry-specific toxic culture which has allowed criminal and corrupt activity to flourish unchecked”.

Senator Watt on Monday said the government was committed to cleaning up the construction sector and “getting rid of the corruption, criminality, bullying and thuggery that has been embedded within it for years”.

“That is why we moved swiftly to put the CFMEU construction division into administration and have reconvened the National Construction Industry Forum, to drive broader change in the industry,” he said

“But as I have also said, employers should not use this time of change in the industry to try and weaken wages and conditions of workers. We need to work co-operatively to find solutions that work for business and workers.”

In an address to union delegates, CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith attacked the employer push and vowed the union would fight a rearguard action.

He said their letter to Senator Watt was confirmation that “an array of bosses and bosses’ groups” were “crawling out from under the rocks” to go after the wages and conditions of construction workers.

“These guys aren’t just talking about it at the board table – they’ve put it in writing and said to the federal government, you need to go one step further,” he said. “Am I pissed off? F..king oath, I am. Are members angry? They’ve got every f..king right to be angry.”

He said the conditions won by the CFMEU were “the envy of unions not just in Australia but across the world”.

As part of their so-called “line in the sand” campaign, construction unions have threatened a 72-hour shutdown of the Victorian building industry and action on the waterfront in pursuit of a 21 per cent pattern pay deal.

Mr Smith said the building unions were determined to sign up 1000 employers to new agreements in the next year.