Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner

The ABCC monitors its operational activities on a monthly basis.

The following statistics relate to the ABCC’s operational activities during January 2012.

Enquiries received

The ABCC receives enquiries through many different methods, including the ABCC Hotline, the enquiry page of the ABCC website, mail, fax and email. ABCC Inspectors can also initiate enquiries that arise during the course of their work, including site visits, direct phone calls and other correspondence with building industry participants.

Enquiries that involve possible contraventions of workplace relations laws are upgraded to preliminary investigations.

 
Investigations

ABCC inspectors investigate alleged contraventions of:

• the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005
• the Fair Work Act 2009
• sham arrangements and unfair services contracts provisions of the Independent Contractors Act 2006
• federal awards
• enterprise agreements
• related legislation.

Investigation briefs identifying potential breaches of legislation are referred to the ABCC Legal team who consider initiating court action.

As at 31 January 2012 the ABCC has 56 open investigations with the Field Operations area.

The table below shows the progression of investigations during January. The table does not include investigations that are continuing from the previous month and have not been escalated.

Education and assistance

The ABCC is responsible for ensuring building and construction industry participants are informed of their rights and responsibilities. This is achieved by conducting visits to construction sites and by giving presentations to industry groups, associations, unions, companies and staff groups.