Geelong union official Brendan Murphy faces Federal Court action over an allegation he illegally closed down a Geelong Grammar School construction site.
Fair Work Building and Construction (FWBC) alleges the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) organiser breached right-of-entry provisions at the worksite in December 2014.
In its statement of claim, FWBC alleges Mr Murphy entered the construction site inside the school grounds saying he wanted to hold a discussion with workers.
FWNC alleged Mr Murphy was repeatedly asked by the site manager to present his right-of-entry permit but refused.
“When the site manager said he would have to call police if Mr Murphy did not produce an entry permit, Mr Murphy responded by saying: ‘Go ahead’ and ‘you know better than that’.
“Mr Murphy then proceeded to conduct a meeting with workers and told them that he was closing the site down.
“The workers that attended the meeting then ceased work and left the site for the remainder of the day. As a result, works scheduled for that day were not completed.
“By closing down the site, Mr Murphy hindered and obstructed the head contractor and sub-contractors engaged on the site.”
FWBC director Nigel Hadgkiss said right-of-entry provisions in the Fair Work Act were designed to provide permit holders access to worksites to carry out genuine business in the interest of workers.
“Right-of-entry is not an excuse to go on to a building site and tell a head-contractor who can and can’t perform work on the site,” Mr Hadgkiss said.
“Behaviour such as this undermines our industrial relations system. I am concerned that persistent abuses of right-of-entry provisions will lead to site occupiers being reluctant to take union officials on their word when they are seeking access for legitimate reasons.
“If this occurs, access to sites may become more adversarial and it will be workers who lose out.”
But the CFMEU claimed Mr Hadgkiss was operating at the behest of the Liberal Party.
National CFMEU construction secretary Dave Noonan said the behaviour of Mr Hadgkiss was extraordinarily inappropriate for the head of a government regulator.
“The FWBC have been running a highly political campaign against the union at the behest of the Liberal Government in order to beef up support for the return of the ABCC,” he said.
“Mr Hadgkiss is continuing to make public comments about the need for the ABCC, using their prosecutions against workers and union officials to support his case.
“He conveniently forgets to mention that recent Federal Court decisions have rejected cases brought by the FWBC against the CFMEU.”
