The Federal Magistrates Court in Brisbane has penalised BLF organiser, Kane Pearson, after he disrupted a concrete pour and swore at employees at a Brisbane building site.
The penalties of $16,500 and $4500 were imposed on the union and Mr Pearson respectively after a settlement was reached with the ABCC.
‘Union organisers, like all other industry participants, are expected show common sense and behave reasonably when carrying out their duties.
‘Mr Pearson was entitled to enter the site and represent his members, but his
confrontational conduct was unnecessary and counter-productive,’ ABC Commissioner Leigh Johns said.
On 5 June 2009 Mr Pearson attended the River Point Apartments site and obstructed the entrance to the concrete pour area with his vehicle. The site manager repeatedly asked Mr Pearson to move his car to allow the five waiting cement trucks to commence the pour. Mr Pearson left the site at the request of the police after obstructing the cement trucks for forty minutes. The concrete pour was subsequently cancelled.
Federal Magistrate Jarrett held that Mr Pearson and the BLF contravened s. 767(1) of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (WR Act) by intentionally hindering and obstructing people working on the site and acting improperly while seeking to exercise rights as a permit holder.
In determining the penalty the Court observed:
‘Mr Pearson clearly misunderstood the powers of entry granted to him by the Workplace Relations Act 1996. The “statutory construct” which provided his right to enter premises where otherwise no common law property rights existed, did not extend to interference with the work that was going on there.’
‘It is the interference with the work going on on-site that is the subject of the complaint against him and the Union, not the fact that he sought to investigate what might have been a potentially dangerous situation for his workers. The latter is justified, the former is not.’
The Court noted the penalty reflected the serious nature of the contravention and the Union’s part in the contravention. Additionally it recognised the lack of remorse and contrition on the part of the Union.
The maximum penalties for a contravention of the WR Act are $6000 in relation to an individual and $33,000 in relation to an organisation.