Bills climb as building watchdog fights bullying case

A bitter dispute in the senior ranks of the construction industry watchdog is racking up steep legal bills.

Fair work boss Nigel Hadgkiss. Picture: Tom Huntley

A bitter dispute in the senior ranks of the construction industry watchdog is racking up steep legal bills and leaving the politically sensitive agency open to allegations of bullying and harassment.

The taxpayer-funded Fair Work Building Industry ­Inspec­torate spent more than $51,000 in three months between October and ­December 21 last year on top lawyers to defend agency boss Nigel Hadgkiss against litigation brought by one of the agency’s legal officers.

The action in the Federal ­Circuit Court was sparked by Mr Hadgkiss’s decision to demote the officer for causing a scene.

The Australian has been told the senior officer “lost it” with a more junior colleague; sources close to the officer, who has not been named due to legal reasons, claim the incident followed months of infighting and bullying and harassment by the junior staff member against her superior.

Mr Hadgkiss ordered an internal inquiry into the incident, which found against the officer, and sanctioned a punishment that ­resulted in the officer’s demotion from a senior executive level to a lower public service rank at the agency and an $18,000-a-year pay cut.

The agency, known commonly as Fair Work Building and Construction, declined to comment on allegations it failed to act to protect the officer from bullying.

In the wake of the decision, the officer filed an anti-bullying application against Mr Hadgkiss in the Fair Work Commission. Mr Hadgkiss was named personally in the Federal Circuit Case until the court agreed to a request to amend the respondent to “Director of the Fair Work Building Industry ­Inspectorate” in November. The matter has been adjourned for ­mediation until after February 1.

Legal experts say fees could continue to spiral further to more than $100,000 if star employment lawyer Steven Amendol, a partner in law firm Ashurst, briefs counsel to represent the agency in ­mediation.

The officer — who has worked at FWBC since its inception in 2012 and was previously a senior lawyer at the agency’s earlier ­incarnation, the Australian Building and Construction Commission — unsuccessfully appealed the finding to the office of the Merit Protection Commissioner.

Details of the FWC anti-bullying case will be kept secret from the public unless a finding against the agency is made.

Code of Conduct hearings at the agency have leapt from none before Mr Hadgkiss took over as director in 2013 to seven in 2014-15.

An FWBC spokesman said ­yesterday the decision to demote the officer was “appropriate disciplinary action”.

“FWBC makes no apology for upholding the APS code of ­conduct and will vigorously ­defend its position accordingly”.

The FWBC, which has led an aggressive pursuit of the militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, winning a ­record number of cases against the union and its officials in the courts for breaking industrial laws, is at the vanguard of the Coalition’s ­efforts to restore the ABCC.

Malcolm Turnbull has vowed to introduce legislation to restore the ABCC in the first week of ­parliament.