CFMEU Victorian president Ralph Edwards, union fined over threat

The construction union and one of its senior officials tried to coerce a scaffolding business, a federal court judge finds.

CFMEU Victorian president Ralph Edwards.

The construction union and one of its senior officials have been fined $245,000 after threatening to put a scaffolding company out of business when it refused to employ a shop steward.

In a scathing decision that slams the union’s “serious record” of breaking industrial laws, federal court Justice Christopher Jessup fined Ralph Edwards, Victorian president of the Construction Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union, $35,000 for trying to “coerce” Melbourne-based scaffolding business Red & Blue.

“Mr Edwards’ threat … was a serious one, in terms both of the thing which he required Red & Blue to do and the consequences which he threatened if that thing were not done,” Justice Jessup said in his penalty judgment published today.

It was “a wilful, conscious act taken by the president of the relevant branch of the union,” he added.

The CFMEU was ordered to pay $210,000 including $20,759 in compensation and interest to Red & Blue for lost earnings and damage.

Justice Jessup said the union had “shown no contrition and has not co-operated with the regulator”.

The CFMEU barred Red & Blue from entering worksites in Maribyrnong and South Yarra in 2013 after the company refused to employ a CFMEU shop steward, Robert Cannon.

Tensions between the union and the company eased after Red & Blue agreed to interview Mr Cannon for a job, but “after that interview entered unproductively … the screws were again tightened on Red & Blue by the (CFMEU)”, Justice Jessup said.

“The action which (Mr Edwards) threatened to take — effectively, to put Red & Blue out of business — was as prejudicial an outcome as any that might be suffered by a trading entity.”

During penalty hearings last month, the court heard evidence the CFMEU had broken industrial laws more than 100 times since 2003.

Justice Jessup said: “Has there ever been a worse recidivist in the history of the common law?

“This record … suggests that the penalties heretofore imposed on the union have been inadequate to provide the specific deterrence which is so conspicuously required in this area of the law.”

Fair Work Building and Construction Director Nigel Hadgkiss, who prosecuted the case, said: “There is no place in the construction industry, or any other workplace for people to use unlawful or threatening tactics in order to prevent workers from conducting their legitimate business interests.”

Mr Hadgkiss, who is yet to say when he is stepping aside after announcing he would take personal leave, added: “FWBC will continue to strive for harmonious and productive conditions on Australian construction sites by taking action against those who break the law”.

The fines for the CFMEU and Mr Edwards may be reduced to $126,000 and $21,000 respectively if paid within six weeks.

The Turnbull government seized on the judgment, saying it underscored the case for the restablishment of the powerful Australian Building and Construction Commission regulator, loathed by the CFMEU.

“The construction industry is too important to the Australian economy to allow lawlessness within it to continue,” Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said.

“When repeat offending by the construction division of the CFMEU gets so bad that the federal court has to ask whether there has ever been a worse recidivist in the history of the common law, there is clearly a problem in the industry and this division of the CFMEU.

She flagged the reintroduction of legislation to restore the ABCC next year, to ensure “there is an effective regulator enforcing meaningful laws that might actually stop people from repeatedly breaking the law.”

CFMEU Construction division national secretary Dave Noonan said he had no comment on the judgment, but “on the broader policy front the FWBC must explain why it refuses to enforce the law against employers who underpay workers, force workers to sham contract and steal workers entitlements.”