Multi-million-dollar union ‘windfall’ if ALP wins

Employers have declared the construction union will reap multi-millions under a Shorten Labor government.

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor. Picture: Gary Ramage

Employers have declared the construction union will reap a multi-million-dollar “windfall” under a Shorten government, as Labor proposes to slash significantly higher penalties for unlawful conduct on building sites and return “union-friendly” content into workplace agreements covering federal work.

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn, said the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union would “unleash a wave of bullying on subbies and tradies” if Labor won the May 18 election and abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Labor in office would scrap the ABCC and not replace it with a separate regulator, while the maximum civil penalties that can now be imposed on the CFMEU and its officials would be cut by two-thirds and brought into line with the Fair Work Act that ­applies to the rest of the workforce. The maximum penalty per contravention under the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act is $210,000 for a union and $42,000 for an individual, compared with the Fair Work Act which is $63,000 and $12,600 respectively.

Labor in office would also scrap the national construction code, which requires builders to remove union-friendly conditions from enterprise agreements if they want to tender for multi-million-dollar commonwealth work.

The ABCC has secured penalties totalling $7.9 million against the CFMEU and its officials since 2016, including $3.1m last financial year and $3.3mn in the past 10 months. ABCC commissioner Stephen McBurney said the agency had 38 cases before the courts, including 14 where the union had been found liable but a penalty had not yet been handed down.

If the ABCC is scrapped, Labor has not made clear what will happen to the 24 cases where liability is undetermined.

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor said through a spokesman: “If elected, Labor will take advice on appropriate action and will look at all precedent on existing proceedings and actions.

“The ABCC is unfair, undemocratic and unwarranted. Labor believes in one set of laws for all workers in this country. It is fundamentally unfair that builders and construction workers have fewer rights than other Australians.”

CFMEU construction division national secretary Dave Noonan said the outstanding litigation would be a matter for Labor if it was elected.

A full Federal Court yesterday upheld an ABCC appeal to increase penalties awarded against the CFMEU over 16 strikes and work stoppages at nine Brisbane construction sites in 2016. The full court increased total penalties against the union and its officials by $146,000 to $668,000.

The Full Court said: “The overall conduct involved a deliberate, premeditated and sustained campaign of unlawful industrial behaviour orchestrated by the union, including elements of intimidation, threat and coercion.”

Ms Wawn said a Labor election win would be a “huge financial windfall for the union”.

“Without the ABCC to hold them to account for their thuggery, they won’t have to pay millions in court fines,’’ she said.

She said CFMEU officials were “just counting the days to what they think will be a certain Labor victory to unleash a wave of bullying on subbies and tradies”.

Master Builders is spending $700,000 on election campaign advertisements calling for the ABCC to be retained.

Mr Noonan said the ABCC was a partisan regulator and Master Builders was in lockstep with the Liberal Party. He claimed ABCC inspectors engaged in “stand over tactics” by going to sites and “threatening builders with being blacklisted from government work unless they basically take the union on”.

Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said Mr Shorten was taking money and orders from the militant CFMEU. She said the union had donated more than $4.2m to the Labor Party since Bill Shorten became party leader.

“The CFMEU has demanded Bill Shorten scrap the ABCC because they don’t like being held accountable by the courts for their abhorrent, law-breaking behaviour,’’ Ms O’Dwyer said.

“Shamefully, he’s agreed. The CFMEU see themselves as above the law, and Bill Shorten is happy to put them there.”

University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart said that, if the ABCC were scrapped, the conduct of the CFMEU warranted a separate compliance division being established within the Fair Work Ombudsman.