CFMEU enemies stuck with each other after Federal Court disallows demerger ballot

Trade union giant’s mining division loses appeal of Fair Work decision rejecting its bid to split from the union.

CFMEU mining and energy division general president Tony Maher ‘battling ongoing legal interference from the construction-dominated national office’. Picture: AAP

Mining union officials from the CFMEU could be required to document the construction division’s record of law-breaking if they want to break away from the union.

The mining and energy division on Monday lost a Federal Court appeal against a Fair Work Commission decision rejecting its bid to split from the union.

Tony Maher, the division’s general president, said it was determined to give members a vote on splitting from the union despite the Federal Court decision “disallowing an initial application for a demerger ballot on technical grounds”.

A commission full bench in 2021 rejected the mining division’s bid to hold a ballot of members. It sought to rely on laws allowing unions to split if they had amalgamated between two and five years before a demerger application.

The mining union said it became part of the merged union in 2018 when the maritime and textile unions amalgamated with the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union but the commission found the merger occurred in 1995.

The Federal Court upheld the commission decision, rejecting the division’s application for a ­judicial review.

Under changes made by the former Coalition government in 2021, the commission can accept appli­cations made more than five years after a merger, but the mining division would be required to document the construction division’s record of not complying with workplace or safety laws.

Criticising the “legal interference” of the CFMEU’s national office, Mr Maher said the mining and energy division intended to lodge a revised application to the commission for a member vote.

“The question I most commonly hear from members is: ‘What’s taking so long?’

“The unfortunate answer is that we are battling ongoing legal interference from the ­construction-dominated national office of the CFMEU,” he said.

“If they cared about the views of mining and energy members within the union, they would get out of the way of a democratic vote. That would be the best and quickest way to resolve this issue.

“We will continue to work through all legal options available to us while focusing entirely on the considerable challenges our members face in mining and energy workplaces.”