Fair Work’s Nigel Hadgkiss begins leave to deal with poor health

Fair Work’s Nigel Hadgkiss has quietly begun a month’s leave to deal with poor health, believed to be vertigo.

Mr Hadgkiss emailed staff last month declaring he would retire with ill health, but backtracked on the decision hours later.

Building industry watchdog head Nigel Hadgkiss has quietly begun a month’s leave from the agency to deal with poor health, believed to be vertigo.

The Fair Work Building Inspectorate Director told staff he was taking off January “to recharge the batteries” and intends to return to his post at the agency, also known as Fair Work Building and Construction.

“I intend taking January off,” Mr Hadgkiss said in the message posted on the agency’s intranet at Christmas. “It will afford an opportunity to restore my health and recharge the batteries.

“I look forward to working with you in 2016”.

The Australian was told by multiple sources that Mr Hadgkiss has severe vertigo. An FWBC spokesman confirmed the diagnosis but declined to comment further on Mr Hadgkiss’s health.

Mr Hadgkiss, a former Australian Federal Police officer, is an important figurehead in the Coalition’s bid to restore the FWBC’s powerful predecessor, the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

He was deputy head of the ABCC before it was scrapped by the previous Labor government and has aggressively pursued the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union since he was appointed Director of FWBC in 2013 by former Employment Minister Eric Abetz.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the Coalition would reintroduce laws to restore the ABCC in the first week of Parliament last week, on releasing the findings of the trade union royal commission.

A second failure to pass the Bill could become the trigger for an early election, after the Senate voted down the proposed laws last year.

Mr Hadgkiss emailed staff last month declaring he would retire with ill health, but backtracked on the decision hours later.

He told staff he was taken to hospital by ambulance in November, and diagnosed with a medical condition, later suffering a relapse.

“Having discussed the matter with my wife, I feel it is best for the agency and the condition of my ongoing health that I retire as director,” Mr Hadgkiss said in the early morning email to staff last month.

However, hours later Mr Hadgkiss changed his mind, emailing staff again to say his colleagues had convinced him to take leave instead.

The CFMEU, which is filing a complaint against FWBC with Geneva’s international labour organisation, has repeatedly condemned the agency’s decision to focus on industrial breaches by unionists, and to refer building industry employers to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Chief Counsel Brian Corney will step in as acting director of FWBC while Cliff Pettit, head of the agency’s Perth operations, will act as chief counsel.