CFMEU ‘used strikes to coerce contractors’

The CFMEU allegedly led workers to down tools in Queensland to coerce head contractors into signing an enterprise agreement.

The Fair Work Building and Construction agency’s dogged pursuit of the construction union went into a new orbit today after it announced it would launch another round of federal court proceedings over an alleged 822 offences by union officials on construction sites in Queensland.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) said it would defend allegations it led workers to down tools at two projects in Queensland for a total 97 days as part of a prolonged campaign to coerce head contractors into signing an enterprise agreement.

A series of strikes took place over a $60m Queensland University of Technology project and a second site at the Enoggera army barracks where workers are undertaking a $770 million redevelopment and construction of Department of Defence facilities. The industrial action stopped only when the head contractors signed the agreement, the FWBC said.

The strikes allegedly persisted despite Fair Work Commission orders preventing the CFMEU from organising industrial action at the site.

The union has already paid millions in fines in recent weeks including a $3.5 million penalty ordered by the federal court last month.

The FWBC said the union repeatedly told head contractors to sign enterprise agreement. An operations manager told the union it was difficult to reach an agreement “with a gun pointed to your head”, the FWBC said in documents filed with the Federal Court.

FWBC Director Nigel Hadgkiss said the agency was taking the matter to court in the “public interest”. He said: “All building and construction industry participants should have the right to work. Reports of workers being told to be quiet when they express an interest in going to work are extremely concerning”.

Should the federal court apply the maximum penalty for one breach, fining all those allegedly involved, the union will face a $2.65 million fine alone.