Judge slams CFMEU’s history of law-breaking

A judge has slammed the CFMEU’s ‘appalling’ history of law-breaking and declared the current federal penalty regime ‘impotent’.

Justice John Snaden said the construction industry union had waged an “unconscionable war against free association on Australian building sites”.

A Federal Court judge has slammed the CFMEU’s “appalling” history of law-breaking, declaring the current federal penalty regime “absurdly impotent” against the notoriously cash and asset rich union

Justice John Snaden, appointed to the court by Attorney-General Christian Porter in 2019, said on Friday the union had waged an “unconscionable war against free association on Australian building sites”.

Penalising the union $110,000 and ordering two representatives personally pay penalties totalling $13,500 for unlawful action in Melbourne, he said the union’s “no-ticket-no start” policy was a “grotesque relic of a long-bygone era that has no place in Australia’s modern industrial relations landscape”.

“The enormity of the union’s history of statutory non-compliance cannot be overstated,” he said.

“For many years, it appears to have imbued its officials (or many of them, particularly in Victoria) with the belief that compliance with industrial laws is optional; and not something that should interfere with the achievement of its industrial objectives.

“The significant penalties that have been levied against it have had little, if any, discernible impact upon the way that it operates. It appears to have taken few or no steps — and certainly few or no effective steps — to reign in the unlawful conduct repeatedly committed in its name.”

Describing the CFMEU as “notoriously cash and asset-rich”, Justice Snaden said the Victorian and Tasmanian branch of the union’s construction and general division had net assets in excess of $70 million as at March 2019.

“Constrained by a penalty regime that is absurdly impotent in the present context, it is appropriate that the court should look toward other relief as a means of shocking the union and its adherents into the 21st century,” he said.

“If ever there were an industry in which special or innovative measures to ensure compliance with industrial laws were warranted, it is the construction industry.

“In the absence of regulatory change aimed at addressing the union’s apparent indifference to the unlawfulness committed in its name, the only obvious way to effect a change of heart on its part is to focus upon those at the proverbial coalface.”

He penalised the CFMEU and two representatives, Mario Raspudic and Mark Travers, for preventing two workers - one a non-financial member and the other a non-member - from working at the Melbourne University College project, and later telling them “union rates” must be paid on the site

Mr Raspudic and Mr Travis were ordered to personally pay penalties of $7500 and $6000, with the union prevented from paying them.

Justice Snaden said Mr Raspudic had added his name to the “long list of officials who have willingly signed on to the union’s unconscionable war against free association on Australian building sites” through its archaic “no ticket, no start” philosophy.

“The union, on any view, has an appalling record of contravening provisions of the FW Act (and its predecessors), particularly those that are aimed at protecting the right of employees to not join industrial associations,” he said.

Calling its law-breaking history “nothing short of astounding, he said the CFMEU had been found to have contravened industrial laws more than 160 times since 2003. “The union must pay a heavy price for its failure to learn the lessons of its history,” he said.

Having considered them in their totality, I am satisfied that penalties totalling $110,000.00 are a proportionate response to the union’s wrongdoing and represent the best prospect that the court has of deterring its repetition.”