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The Federal Court imposed penalties totalling $101,500 against the AMWU, CFMEU and AWU and three of their officials for their involvement in unlawful industrial action at a construction project at the Australian Paper Mill in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
The unlawful action stopped work at the Mill’s de-inking project for three days in March 2014, continuing on the third day in defiance of orders from the Fair Work Commission that industrial action stop.
The Court found by involving themselves in the action, the officials “took advantage of the employees’ unlawful conduct to strengthen their hands in their negotiations with the companies”.
In the judgment, Justice Jessup singled out the CFMEU for what he described as its “appalling” prior record of non-compliance with industrial laws.
Justice Jessup noted the “normalisation of contraventions” by the CFMEU “has been the subject of comment by Judges on so many previous occasions that any further observation on my part here would amount to little more than stating the obvious”.
His Honour continued:
…if there is any union in the industrial universe which should be acutely aware of the importance of understanding the boundaries of lawful conduct in the prosecution of disputes, it is this one. Self-evidently, it does not care to do so.|
Penalties awarded against |
Penalties awarded |
|
CFMEU |
$45,000 |
|
AMWU |
$25,000 |
| AWU | $20,000 |
|
Steven Dodd |
$4,500 |
|
Jeff Sharp |
$3,500 |
|
Toby Thornton |
$3,500 |
|
Total |
$101,500 |
$101,500