The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) continues its active investigation and prosecution of workplace law breaches, highlighting its important role in upholding compliance.

The Federal Court last week ordered CFMMEU state assistant secretary Richard Hassett personally pay a $10,000 penalty for the latest in a series of right of entry breaches.

The Court also penalised the CFMMEU $50,000 as a result of Mr Hassett’s breach at the Cattle Hill Wind Farm construction site in Lake Echo in January 2019.

This is the fourth case in which the Court has found Mr Hassett to be in breach of federal workplace laws, having been penalised a total of $39,500 for eight contraventions in earlier proceedings brought by the ABCC.

At the same time the CFMMEU has also been penalised $345,000 following Mr Hassett’s unlawful actions, including in the Cattle Hill Wind Farm matter.

At the time of his unlawful entry on the Cattle Hill Wind Farm construction site, Mr Hassett did not hold a federal right of entry permit. The Court concluded he must have known that he could not enter site under a State occupational health and safety right.

Justice O’Callaghan in his judgment said of Mr Hassett’s offending:

“Mr Hassett must well have known that he had no right to enter the Site, because quite apart from what he must be assumed to have known from his previous encounters in this court, he had only a little more than a month earlier handed back his entry permit to the Fair Work Commission.”

“It follows that, because Mr Hassett must have known that by entering the Site without an entry permit he was contravening the FW Act, the contravention is necessarily a serious one.

“Given that Mr Hassett is a repeat offender, the need for an order that is directed towards specific deterrence is, I would have thought, obvious…”

In requiring Mr Hassett to be personally liable for paying his penalty Justice O’Callaghan went on to say:

“This is also an obvious case for the making of a personal payment order. Mr Hassett was given a chance by Tracey J in The Parliament Square Case … to reflect on his conduct and his responsibilities as a permit holder, but obviously enough he did not do so … In my view, the imposition of a personal payment order is appropriate to ensure, as far as possible, that the burden of the penalty is recognised.”

Justice O’Callaghan also said of the CFMMEU:

“The CFMMEU is, as the court has said countless times, a large organisation with significant financial resources which exhibits apparent willingness to contravene the FW Act in a serious way to impose its will. In light of those factors, and of the need for deterrence of an organisation of its size, a penalty of $50,000 will be imposed on the CFMMEU for its admitted contravention.”

ABCC Commissioner Stephen McBurney said the level of penalty imposed by the Federal Court on both the CFMMEU and Mr Hassett, along with the imposition of a personal payment order underlined the seriousness with which the Court viewed Mr Hassett’s actions.

“In my submissions to the Court, I described Mr Hassett is a recidivist offender, having contravened right of entry laws eight times in circumstances marked by their frequency, consistency and brazenness.”  Mr McBurney said.

“The personal payment order now imposed is significant, as to date the penalties have not deterred Mr Hassett or the CFMMEU from further contraventions.

“The Tasmanian building and construction industry is vitally important to that State’s economy. A concerning feature of these cases is the wilful disregard exhibited by Mr Hassett and the CFMMEU for the important right of entry and health and safety protections enshrined in workplace laws.

“Mr Hassett is no longer a Federal permit holder. I encourage anyone affected by further unlawful conduct of this type to immediately contact the ABCC and we will take appropriate action.”

ABCC alleges CFMMEU officials repeatedly disrupt work at Adelaide Airport site

The ABCC has filed Federal Court proceedings against the CFMMEU and nine of its officials over several alleged contraventions that occurred on the redevelopment site of Terminal 1 at Adelaide Airport in 2019.

The ABCC alleges that CFMMEU officials attended the site on six separate occasions, refused to comply with requests to produce their right of entry permits, made a number of threatening and offensive statements and disrupted work on site.

In a statement of claim filed in the Federal Court, the ABCC alleges union officials refused to comply with a request to produce their right of entry permits and made misrepresentations to the site management regarding workplace rights, and their right to enter site.

It also alleges two union officals attended the site again and made a number of threatening and abusive remarks to and about the site manager, to the effect of:

“F**k with us and we will f**k with you”

“F**k you, you piece of s**t… piece of s**t, piece of f**king s**t”

“Go do your colouring books, you c**t”

“He (the site manager) is a piece of shit…”

The ABCC alleges the CFMMEU officials’ conduct on 3 April 2019, 23, 24 and 28 May 2019 at the Adelaide Airport site contravenes the right of entry provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009.

The maximum penalty for each contravention of the Fair Work Act is $63,000 for a body corporate and $12,600 for an individual. The ABCC is seeking personal payment orders to be awarded against each of the nine officials.

AREEA will continue to advocate for the important measures within the Ensuring Integrity Bill that will considerably improve our nation’s industrial relations environment and promote greater compliance with industrial laws.