CFMEU hit with near maximum fine over picket involving new leader

The CFMEU has been fined $180,000 for an unlawful picket involving its incoming national leader that protested alleged underpayments at a Canberra building site and locked out workers.

“They illustrate a pattern of behaviour in which the union acts as if it is above the law,” she said.“The union’s lack of contrition and failure to take corrective action, despite the imposition of numerous penalties for contraventions of a similar kind, underscores the compelling need to fix a penalty large enough to operate as an effective deterrent.”

Then-ACT branch secretary Jason O’Mara, then-assistant secretary Mr Smith, who will be the head of the union’s construction division from March, and other officials parked cars in front of the site’s entrances, linked arms to block access to the project and placed chains and locks on the gates. She found the picket was to pressure the subcontractor to bow to the union’s demands ahead of a conciliation conference that morning about the underpayments.

“The union does not have ‘a culture of compliance’ and its overall record tends to show an attitude of indifference to the law,” she said. While she did not impose the maximum penalty of $210,000 on the union, she increased the penalty “substantially” to 86 per cent of the maximum.She found both Mr O’Mara and Mr Smith were involved in the breaches but maintained their fines at $12,600 each.Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn said the judge “rightly call[ed] out the union’s business model and awarded an extremely high penalty”.

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