Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner

Allegations in the ABCC’s statement of claim

• Brady Constructions Pty Ltd (Brady) was the head contractor at the Alto Apartments site on St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria.
• Brady engaged Ward Strongforce Management Pty Ltd (Ward) to perform steel fixing work on the site.
• On 16 February 2008, a new OHS Representative was elected by the employees on the site.
• At 12:30pm the newly elected OHS Representative received an abusive phone call from CFMEU organiser Adrian McLoughlin, as outlined in the ABCC Statement of Claim at paragraph 13. Mr McLoughlin said that he would not accept him as the OHS Representative and intended to call a meeting of the employees on the site to have him removed from the position.
• On 19 February 2008, at about 6:30am CFMEU organiser Mr McLoughlin attended the site and had a conversation with the OHS Representative. Mr McLoughlin said that he would not accept the OHS Representative on site.
• At about 6:45am, Mr McLoughlin told the Project Manager that he would hold a meeting to have the OHS Representative removed. The Project Manager warned Mr McLoughlin that by directing the Ward employees to cease their work as steel fixers he would be stopping a concrete pour.
• Mr McLoughlin personally instructed the Ward employees to cease work and leave the deck. This caused a major delay in the scheduled concrete pour.
• The Ward employees stopped work at this time and did not return to work until 8:30am.
• Following a meeting with the Ward employees, Mr McLoughlin told Director of Brady that he would not leave the site until the OHS Representative was “off the job”.

Alleged contraventions

• The ABCC alleges that the CFMEU and Mr McLoughlin engaged in unlawful industrial action by imposing a ban on building work at the Alto Apartment site in contravention of s.38 of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005.

ABCC Prosecution

• The ABCC filed proceedings in the Federal Magistrates Court in Melbourne on 13 July 2009. The first directions hearing is scheduled for Monday 21 September 2009.

Penalties

• The maximum penalties that may be imposed by the courts for a contravention of s.38 of the BCII Act are $22,000 for an individual and $110,000 for an organisation.