CFMEU, official fined $52,000

The construction union and one of its organisers have been fined $52,000.

The construction union and one of its organisers have been fined $52,000 after a federal circuit court judge imposed penalties for unlawful industrial action and cited the union’s “woeful” history before the courts.

Michael Myles from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union instigated unlawful industrial action at the $60 million Queensland University of Technology Kelvin Grove project where he convened a meeting of workers in May 2014, the federal circuit court found.

After the meeting, Mr Myles demanded the site manager be stood down from the project for a day, according to the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate, which brought the action. When the head contractor refused to comply, the workers who had ­attended the meeting failed to perform any work that day.

In a decision handed down in the Federal Circuit Court earlier this month, judge Michael ­Jarrett said “the sole purpose (of Myles’s actions) was to restrict the duties of the site manager ... whose role was to manage the QUT Project site.

“The stoppage caused delays, inconvenience and cost ... the ­action was calculated to do so, so it had a coercive effect”.

Mr Myles was penalised $7000 and the CFMEU $45,000.