CFMEU safety breaches ‘neither isolated nor minor’

The CFMEU has come under fire by the industry watchdog amid claims officials are abusing right of entry rules.

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The construction union’s own safety record has come under fire from the industry watchdog amid claims officials are abusing right-of-entry rules to gain access to projects and are behaving “dangerously” on site.

Nigel Hadgkiss, the director of the Fair Work Building and Construction agency, will tell a safety convention tonight that “instances of union officials disobeying laws in respect of safety are on the increase”. Officials from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union are also using “bogus” safety claims to enter worksites, Mr Hadgkiss will claim.

“Situations where union officials use questionable safety claims to gain entry to a site, only to pursue an industrial agenda, are frighteningly common …. this is where FWBC has to step in,” he will say.

“Every time a union official uses a bogus safety claim to get on site, only to push an industrial agenda, it undermines the very system established to protect workers when a legitimate safety issue occurs. Simply put, I am increasingly fearful that this malpractice will become a case of the boy who cried wolf.’’

In a case brought by the FWBC against the CFMEU in the Federal Circuit Court, Mr Hadgkiss said organisers entered a site “purportedly to address safety issues”. However, one refused to wear protective clothing, telling a foreman, “I don’t have to answer to you, you f. king little grub”, the court heard. “These breaches are not isolated incidents, nor are they minor,” Mr Hadgkiss said.

The FWBC agency, which does not cover workplace safety regulation, investigates and prosecutes alleged coercion, discrimination, unlawful industrial action and right-of-entry breaches in the construction industry.

“Unfortunately, it is the last of these unlawful activities that sees FWBC have a rather unfortunate connection with safety in the building industry,” Mr Hadgkiss said.

He said one organiser who claimed to be visiting a worksite for safety issues brought a portable eftpos machine with him, suggesting his presence was for “recruitment and membership”, a breach of the rules for right-of-entry permits.

Eight of the FWBC’s legal cases against the CFMEU today involve allegations that union officials disobeyed safety laws on site, and seven involved officials using “questionable safety claims to get on site”.