A Full Court of the Federal Court has upheld an appeal by the ABCC. It increased a penalty against the CFMEU from $5,000 to $25,000 for unlawful industrial action and coercion in Stuart v CFMEU & Corbett.
The CFMEU and shop steward Charlie Corbett admitted to taking:
- unlawful industrial action; and
- action intended to apply undue pressure to a subcontractor to agree to make an EBA with the CFMEU.
The events occurred during construction of the Morwell police and law courts complex in 2006. Celltech Australia was a subcontractor working at the site whose employees were not covered by an agreement with the CFMEU.
The contraventions involved the organising of a stopwork meeting, refusing to induct two Celltech employees and stating that the work to be undertaken by the employees was CFMEU work and the employees needed a CFMEU agreement to work at the site.
ABC Commissioner John Lloyd said he was pleased with the outcome.
“The decision confirms that it is unlawful to apply undue pressure to a contractor to make an enterprise agreement with the CFMEU. The ABCC receives complaints quite regularly about this type of conduct.”
“It is a fact that on many building and construction projects different pay and conditions will apply reflecting the type of industrial arrangements covering the workers at the site. The pursuit of common pay and conditions by unlawful means is not permitted.” Mr Lloyd said.
The ABCC launched legal proceedings against the CFMEU and Mr Corbett in February 2008. On 2 October 2009 Justice Gray ordered the CFMEU to pay a penalty of $5,000 for contravening section 38 and section 44 of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (BCII Act). The ABCC appealed this judgement on 22 October 2009. The Full Court heard the appeal on 17 February 2010 and delivered its judgement yesterday.
The CFMEU was ordered to pay $25,000 in penalties and to also pay the ABCC’s appeal costs.
Industry participants can call the ABCC hotline 1800 003 338 for advice and assistance 7 days a week.