CFMEU stung $221k for breaches of right-of-entry laws

Union and officials penalised for breaching right-of-entry laws and intimidating managers at a construction site.

The CFMEU and two if its officials have been fined $221,000. Picture Glenn Hampson

The CFMEU and two of its Tasmanian officials, including veteran Kevin Harkins, have been penalised $221,000 after the Federal Court found they contravened right-of-entry laws and intimidated managers at a Hobart construction site.

Federal Court judge David O’Callaghan found CFMEU official Richard Hassett, who had not held a valid right-of-entry permit since December 2018, unlawfully entered the Elizabeth Street project where Vos Construction and Joinery was head contractor in May last year.

On an initial unannounced visit on May 23, Mr Hassett claimed the site had asbestos ­issues. Five days later, Mr Hassett returned with Mr Harkins, who cited a range of alleged suspected safety contraventions.

When project manager Brendan Baynes told Mr Hassett he had no authority to be on the site and asked him to leave, Mr Hassett refused and said: “I can do whatever I f..king like.”

Site foreman Jeremy Brown asked Mr Harkins to specify the unsafe equipment to which he wanted to be taken.

Mr Harkins responded “in a loud and intimidating manner, saying words to the effect of: Don’t get smart with me, arsehole. I’m nearly at the end of my career. I don’t give a f..k about what happens to me, but that bloke over there will be onto you (pointing to Mr Hassett)”.

Mr Brown again asked what the safety breaches were but Mr Harkins responded: “You don’t f..king pay me, so I’m not going to tell you.”

The court said Mr Hassett was a “recidivist”; his conduct flagrant and his contraventions deliberate and serious.

Justice O‘Callaghan said it was “a notorious fact that the CFMEU is a well-resourced, recidivist ­offender of workplace laws”.

“No point is served here by adding to the plethora of descriptors of its conduct,” he said. ­“According to the unchallenged submission of the applicant, the CFMEU has contravened industrial legislation more than 170 times in the two decades prior to the conduct that gave rise to this proceeding, and as this court has said on many occasions, the union regards paying penalties as part of ‘doing business’.”

In the two most recent cases Mr Hassett has been penalised $30,000, with the court imposing personal payment orders against him requiring him to personally pay his penalties. Australian Building and Construction Commissioner Stephen McBurney said that since December 2016 the union’s Tasmanian branch and its representatives had $615,500 in penalties imposed in five separate cases. Mr Hassett featured as a contravener in all cases.

“A concerning feature of these cases is the wilful disregard exhibited by Mr Harkins, Mr Hassett and the CFMEU for the important right-of-entry and health and safety protections,” he said.

Mr McBurney said courts had penalised the CFMEU and its representatives more than $11m over the past four years as a result of ABCC proceedings.