CFMEU Qld: 10,400 working days lost as state leads nation in strikes

Queensland has extended its lead as Australia’s strike capital, with a staggering 10,400 working days lost to industrial action in the June quarter.

CFMEU workers on the march in Brisbane’s CBD

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A staggering 10,400 working days were lost to industrial action in the June quarter, as Queensland extended its lead as the nation’s strike capital.

The eye-watering figure is 1000 days, or 10 per cent, higher than in the three months prior.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for the three months to June 30 reveal the significant time lost to industrial disputes in Queensland above the rest of the nation.

The state’s 10,400 days lost was significantly higher than the next worst, Western Australia, which lost 4500 working days to industrial action.

Remuneration and employment conditions were the key enterprise bargaining-related causes of working days lost, alongside health and safety concerns.

New South Wales and Victoria both lost 2400 days in the June quarter.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said the lost hours were largely due to bargaining between private companies and unions under Commonwealth law, not the Queensland public sector.

“Days lost to industrial disputes are cyclical and vary from state to state and from quarter to quarter, depending on private sector enterprise bargaining under the federal Fair Work Act,” she said.

“The ABS notes that the primary cause of industrial disputes is enterprise-bargaining-related, with the majority of businesses and employees in Queensland recently negotiating under the federal system.”

Queensland’s largest infrastructure project, the $6.3bn Cross River Rail build, has been the site of a major industrial battle between the CFMEU and major contractor CPB.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NCA NewsWire

The CFMEU, in its 11th consecutive week of strike action against CPB, accused the company of offering a cash bribe to striking workers in a desperate bid to end the ongoing industrial stalemate.

CPB offered workers a $5000 one-off payment if they accepted the terms of an enterprise bargaining agreement to end a long-running negotiation between the union and contractor.

The CFMEU argued CPB had refused to engage with worker demands for an effective heat policy and provisions around fairness and job security for employees and subcontractors.

It is understood the offer could go to a vote among workers as soon as the end of this week, and if ratified would finalise the enterprise bargaining stoush that has gone on since October.

CFMEU civil construction co-ordinator Dylan Howard said: “Cross River Rail workers have been taking industrial action for better safety conditions and job security, not one-off cash payments.

“With a huge program of infrastructure projects in the pipeline over the next five years, the CFMEU warned its actions at Cross River Rail were just the beginning, and said it planned to civilise Queensland’s civil construction sector amid a mega-pipeline of infrastructure over the next five years.

The militant union, currently being forcibly run by a government-appointed administrator, claimed CPB’s offer had gone backwards since the CFMEU was buckled at the knees by the federal government.

CPB declined to comment, but earlier this month said it would continue talks.

A spokeswoman said: “We remain committed to negotiating a fair and reasonable agreement for all employees working on Cross River Rail, while also ensuring a positive, sustainable outcome for Queensland’s construction industry.”

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Jarrod Bleijie said an LNP government would reinstate the Productivity Commission, but would not put a target on reducing working days lost.

“The LNP has already committed to re-establish the Productivity Commission and its first order of business will be a regulatory review of the building industry,” he said.

“The LNP will ensure workers are well paid, job sites are safe and productivity returns to Queensland once again.”

Originally published as CFMEU Qld: 10,400 working days lost as state leads nation in strikes