CFMEU in bid to block Fair Work access to membership

A legal battle has broken out between the CFMEU and the Fair Work Building and Construction agency.

CFMEU construction division national secretary Dave Noonan (left) with a union official outside their Brisbane branch office. Picture: Darren England.

A legal battle has broken out between the construction union and the Fair Work Building and Construction agency on the eve of a Coalition bid to bolster the regul­ator’s powers.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union launched an appeal with the industr­ial umpire last week seeking to block the watchdog from ­accessing its member records.

In an earlier decision, the Fair Work Commission’s general manager granted the FWBC the right to inspect the union’s member roll during an investigation.

The commission bestowed on the regulator “authority to inspect, make copies of, or take extracts from membership records of the CFMEU for the purpose of obtaining information about the membership status of people who were or are believed to be members of the CFMEU”.

On Thursday, the union appeal­ed against the decision, argu­ing that there were limits on the commission’s power to grant ­access under Fair Work registered organisations laws. It was the first time the union had objected to such an order, despite at least one previous successful attempt by the FWBC to force open the CFMEU’s membership roll.

Fair Work vice-president Adam Hat­cher granted the union a stay on the commission’s order, which would have let the FWBC access union records on Friday, pending a hearing of the CFMEU’s appeal. Mr Hatcher noted that the FWBC “conceded there was no particular urgency associated with the aspect of its investigation ... he also identified that there were other legal mechanisms by which he could obtain the information sought if necessary”.

Regardless of the union appeal, FWBC is likely to use temporary coercive powers to compel it to produce the records, even if it loses in the Fair Work Commission.

An FWBC spokesman said yesterday that “the investigation is ongoing and we’ll continue with the investigation, regardless of the ­appeal”.

He said his agency’s previous accessing of CFMEU records led to successful prosecution.

CFMEU construction division national secretary Dave Noonan said: “We had strong feedback from members and branches that they’re unhappy with providing this material.

“People would expect their union to do everything legally possible to protect their privacy and their legal information.”

Mr Noonan said he was concerned that the FWBC “refuses to prosecute employers who break the law”.

“Construction union members of the union have a reasonable expectatio­n of privacy,” he said.

“The fact that the agency doesn’t shows they are drunk on power.”

The Turnbull government plans to introduce laws into parliam­ent tomorrow to restore the Australian Building and Construction­ Commission, a more powerful incarnation of the FWBC that would have permanent coercive powers.