ABCC takes penalty threat to workers’ homes

The ABCC dramatically escalates its election fight with the construction union.

Australian Building and Construction Commission chief Stephen McBurney.

The building regulator has served court documents on workers at their family homes, threatening to pursue hefty financial penalties against employees, in an escalation of the agency’s election campaign fight with the construction union.

ACTU secretary Sally McMan­us accused the Australian Building and Construction Commission of “disgusting anti-worker, anti-­family conduct” after it sent process servers on the eve of the Easter break to the homes of workers in Western Australia.

Forty-four workers are exposed to penalties of $42,000 each for ­allegedly taking part in unlawful industrial action organised by the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union at six Perth Airport rail project sites in December.

The unannounced arrival of process servers at the homes of workers on Wednesday and Thursday nights angered union leaders, who slammed the agency for continuing to pursue legal ­action against the CFMEU, its ­officials and workers after the ­election was called.

Bill Shorten has vowed to abolish the ABCC if Labor wins the May 18 election, and Master Builders Australia is spending $700,000 on campaign advertisements ­opposing the policy.

ABCC commissioner Stephen McBurney, whose agency has 38 cases against the CFMEU before the courts, intends to keep taking court action during and after the election campaign.

If the ABCC is scrapped by the ALP, there is a prospect that 24 cases where liability is undetermined will be dropped or will form part of a global settlement.

Ms McManus said the “only way to stop this thuggish behaviour by a regulator on a power trip” was for the Coalition to be defeated.

“This is a blatant abuse of power by an organisation which has lost its moral authority to exist,’’ she told The Weekend Australian.

Dave Noonan, the national secretary of the CFMEU’s construction division, said Mr McBurney “ought to be ashamed of himself, intimidating and bullying workers during their Easter break at their homes in the presence of their families”.

“It’s a disgrace. It’s the sort of ­behaviour you would see in an ­authoritarian, Third World dictatorship and we call on Scott Morrison to condemn it and tell McBurney to pull his head in.’’ he said.

An ABCC spokesman defended serving workers with documents at their homes. “The court requires us to personally serve respondents,’’ he said. “It is difficult, if not impossible, for our process servers to ­access building sites or to know the whereabouts of individuals during the day. As a result, most service is effected via a person’s home address.”

He said four employees were personally served on Wednesday and two on Thursday, with the agency intending to serve the ­remaining 38 workers. He said no workers were served on Good ­Friday.

The ABCC is separately seeking penalties against individual steelworkers for participating in the ACTU’s anti-Coalition rallies last year. Under the ABCC legislation, an individual worker can be penalised up to $42,000 for unlawful industrial action, more than three times the maximum $12,600 penalty for an individual under the Fair Work Act.

The Federal Court imposed penalties totalling $105,000 against 75 workers last October after they took part in unlawful industrial action at the New Children’s Hospital project in Perth.

The workers were penalised $1400 each after they had withdrawn their labour soon after work was scheduled to start on the project in February 2013.

In the latest action, the ABCC has launched proceedings against the CFMEU and three of its officers, including West Australian secretary Mick Buchan, alleging they organised unlawful industrial ­action across six Perth Airport rail sites and were involved in a picket at the head contractor’s office.

The agency alleges Mr Buchan, assistant state secretary Graham Pallot and union organiser Walter Molina organised unlawful industrial action on December 10, and the 44 employees also took unlawful industrial action across the sites.

In its statement of claim filed in the Federal Court, the ABCC alleges CFMEU officers, including Mr Molina, met workers to discuss the payment of redundancy pay at the conclusion of the project.

It says a large number of the ­employees claimed to have developed a stomach illness before they walked off the job. It says officials and workers also picketed the contractor’s head office.