CFMEU facing $2.25m penalties after Federal Court judgment

Federal Court judgment ordered maximum penalties be imposed on union over unlawful industrial action by 1000 workers.

Four officials, including NSW secretary Brian Parker, have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Picture: John Grainger

The CFMEU is facing massive penalties of $2.25 million for unlawful conduct and four officials, including NSW secretary, Brian Parker, have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions following a scathing Federal Court judgment today.

Justice Geoffrey Flick ordered maximum penalties be imposed on the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union over unlawful industrial action by 1000 workers at the Barangaroo site in Sydney in 2014

He also referred four officials, including Mr Parker, to the DPP for allegedly giving false testimony during the proceedings brought by the building watchdog.

In finding that maximum penalties of $1.3 million should be imposed on the CFMEU, he said it was “not possible to envisage worse union behaviour”.

He said 75 per cent of the maximum penalty should also be imposed on the union’s NSW branch. This would equate to $956,000

Mr Parker and three officials also face individual penalties totalling more than $160,000.

While the precise amounts are yet to be finalised, the CFMEU and its officials are facing penalties totalling more than $2., 4 million

Justice Flick ordered the CFMEU pay for the publication of notices in two Sydney newspapers and the union’s journal about the unlawful conduct of its officials.

Finding the union was a “recidivist offender”, he said “the CFMEU has long demonstrated by its conduct that it pays but little regard to compliance with the law and indeed has repeatedly sought to place itself above the law”.

“The prior imposition of penalties — some nearing the maximum — against the CFMEU has not deterred it from engaging in clearly unlawful industrial action,’’ he said.

“Indeed, the conduct for which the CFMEU assumes liability in the present proceeding shows a further and serious contempt for the law.

“The CFMEU’s conduct exposes a cavalier disregard for the prior penalties imposed by this Court and exposes the fact that such prior impositions of penalties have failed to act as a deterrent against further unlawful industrial action.”

Justice Flick said the union’s behaviour has gone downhill since a previous critical judgment in 2015.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to envisage any worse conduct than that pursued by the CFMEU,’’ he said.

“The CFMEU assumes a prominent role in the industrial affairs of this country and has consistently exhibited a contempt for compliance with the law.

The conduct of its officers and employees has consistently shown a total contempt for the rights of occupiers and a total contempt for the constraints imposed by the law.

“It is difficult to perceive how such conduct can be regarded as in the best interests of the bulk of its members and the workers it supposedly represents. Such conduct may promote the CFMEU as a “militant” union. But the constraints imposed by the law apply to all including the CFMEU.”

The court previously found the CFMEU forced a shutdown of the Barangaroo site in support of union delegate Peter Genovese who had been suspended from his employment after incidents of throwing a punch at a site manager and threatening to “kill” him.

Justice Flick said Mr Parker and other senior CFMEU officials had led industrial action involving more than 1,000 workers which shut down the site on July 24 and 25, 2014.

Workers who had attempted to enter the site were abused by CFMEU officials and called “scum” and “dogs”. A policewoman at the site said Mr Parker “made sure that I was feeling either intimidated or scared”.

CFMEU NSW Assistant State Secretary Robert Kera was heard describing agency Inspectors as “f.cking dogs”, and union organiser Luke Collier read out an inspector’s mobile telephone number during an address to workers.

Mr Collier told the inspector: “you’re a f*cking grub” and “you’re lower than a pedophile. you grub”.

Justice Flick referred the evidence given during the proceedings by four officials, including Mr Parker and Mr Collier to the Office of the DPP.

The court earlier found that Mr Parker’s failure to recollect events during his evidence was due to a lack of memory or to an “unwillingness to be fully frank in the evidence he was giving”. The court observed the latter was the more likely explanation.

ABCC Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss said the judgment reflected the seriousness of yet further unlawful conduct by the CFMEU and its officials, who were repeat offenders.

“This was a particularly serious dispute which saw threats and intimidation of workers trying to get back to work, as well as a female police officer and Inspectors just doing their job,” Mr Hadgkiss said.

“This was a case in which the Federal Court has penalised the CFMEU and numerous officials for another example of calculated defiance and contravention of workplace laws.”

Comment has been sought from the CFMEU.