Federal Court Penalty Decision on Coercion
The Federal Court today published its decision in Carr v AMWU and Others [2005] FCA 1802. Finkelstein J imposed significant penalties on the AMWU and four union officials.
The matter relates to breaches in June 2003, when the AMWU and four AMWU organisers, Ale Mulipola, Fergal Eiffe, Ian Thomas and Steve Mansour engaged in various acts on two construction sites with intent to coerce a contractor to make a certified agreement with the AMWU.
Penalties
Finkelstein J ordered that a pecuniary penalty of:
- $25,000 be imposed on the AMWU;
- $1000 be imposed on Ale Mulipola;
- $600 be imposed on the Fergal Eiffe;
- $400 be imposed on the Ian Thomas; and
- $400 be imposed on the Steve Mansour; for contravening section 170NC of the Workplace Relations Act 1996.
Finkelstein J further ordered that $20,000 of AMWU’s pecuniary penalty be paid to Direct Solutions (Aust) Pty Ltd trading as Engineering Directions and that the balance of the pecuniary penalties be paid to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
ABC Commissioner John Lloyd’s comments
This is an important judgment. We note the decision of the Court and in particular the magnitude of the penalties. The ABCC will continue to prosecute appropriate matters where building industry participants engage in unlawful activity in the building and construction industry.
We note that the maximum penalty payable was $10,000 in respect of each breach. The penalties for coercion offences under the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (BCII Act) have since been increased to $110,000 for a body corporate and $22,000 for an individual.
In this proceeding, the ABCC asked the Court to order that part of the penalty imposed on the AMWU be paid to the company that was the victim of the breaches. In appropriate cases, the ABCC regards it as important to compensate persons for damage suffered by them as a result of unlawful conduct. Section 49 of the BCII Act now enables the Court to order a person who contravenes the BCII Act to pay compensation to another person for damage suffered by them as a result of that contravention.