Warning on union as units face crash

Master Builders chief Denita Wawn has accused the CFMEU of ‘behaving in an appalling, selfish manner’, as a clash with the union escalates.

Master Builders Association chief Denita Wawn. Picture: Richard Jupe

Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn has accused the CFMEU of “behaving in an appalling, selfish manner”, as the clash between the union and construction giants escalates and new forecasts predict a 40.7 per cent plunge in the apartment construction sector.

The MBA is warning the CFMEU’s enterprise agreement in NSW, including demands for five per cent annual pay increases for workers and nine-day fortnights, could increase the costs of a $100m project by more than 9 per cent.

The construction lobby group, which is using analysis prepared by quantity surveyors to attack the CFMEU, says the agreement could also drive up costs for taxpayer-funded infrastructure stimulus projects.

The CFMEU, which has already secured agreements with more than 250 subcontractors, has ramped-up its stand-off with major construction companies in recent weeks, launching union action targeting sites operated by Probuild and Watpac.

Ms Wawn said the economic impact of the CFMEU’s demands and tactics would be a significant blow to the building sector.

The MBA has revised its outlook for the apartment construction sector in 2020-21, forecasting a 40.7 per cent decline next year, from an earlier prediction of 17.2 per cent.

“The construction sector with its huge economic multiplier effect is being harnessed by governments to rebuild to recovery, and here the CFMEU is using industrial thuggery to try and bully businesses into an agreement that increases costs by as much as 11 per cent,” Ms Wawn told The Australian.

“Mums and dads whose jobs are under threat will be disgusted to know the CFMEU is holding the community to ransom in pursuit of 5 per cent a year wage increase and a three-day weekend every fortnight.

“We have an economy being smashed by a collapse in private sector demand, we’ve got a high-rise apartment and commercial construction facing a death zone where activity is forecast to fall by over 40 per cent and this union is pulling out all the stops to increase costs.”

CFMEU NSW secretary Darren Greenfield said the MBA’s claims were “ridiculous and unjustifiable”, describing them as “Chicken Little ‘sky is falling’ hysteria”.

“Since January, more than 250 subcontractors employing around 85 per cent of the NSW construction workforce have signed CFMEU agreements. None of them have complained about increased costs on jobs to either the union or the builders the MBA claims to represent,” Mr Greenfield told The Australian.

“The MBA claims are junk. They arrive at grossly inflated wage costs by applying every possible loading and site allowance and by suggesting that workers would be on the job for up to 80 hours per week.”