John Hindmarsh (South Australia) Pty Ltd was the head contractor for a construction site at Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia.
On 30 May 2008, a representative of the CFMEU, Mr Justin Feehan visited the site.
Mr Feehan met with Hindmarsh site management and made several demands including that union officials should be allowed unrestricted access to the site and should be allowed to conduct meetings with union members at any time of their choosing.
Mr Feehan’s demands were rejected by Hindmarsh site management and he was directed to leave the site.
Mr Feehan refused to leave the site. Hindmarsh site management called the police and the police attended the site.
Shortly after the attendance of the police Mr Feehan organised a meeting outside the entrance to the site with employees of several contractors engaged at the site.
Mr Feehan spoke to the employees and actively encouraged them not to return to work at the conclusion of the meeting. The employees did not perform work at the site for the remainder of the day, disrupting the performance of work at the site.
As a consequence of both the stop-work meeting and the absence of the employees from work for the remainder of the day, the employees failed to perform the work that they were engaged to perform on the project.
The ABCC alleged that the CFMEU and Mr Feehan were involved in two instances of unlawful industrial action.
On 13 April 2010 the Court was advised that the parties had reached agreement in the matter. The CFMEU and Mr Feehan admitted to engaging in industrially motivated unlawful industrial action. They also admitted there was no reasonable concern about an imminent risk to the health or safety of workers at the site.