The CFMEU’s construction division has racked up about $19 million in penalties over the past eight years for breaches of workplace laws that judges say the union regards as “a cost of doing business”.
In 2009, the Gillard Labor government replaced the ABCC with Fair Work Building and Construction. The ABCC was restored by the Coalition government at the end of 2016 after the Heydon Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.Mr McBurney noted the CFMEU made up $15.8 million, or 90 per cent, of the total penalties. The FWO said on Wednesday that it had secured additional penalties of more than $3.3 million since October last year in cases picked up from the ABCC.
Justice O’Sullivan said Mr Savage had engaged in “physically threatening behaviour” that was “intended to intimidate” and could “only be described as thuggish”.The judge found Mr Savage breached the adverse action provisions in the Fair Work Act when he told the site manager: “The more you call your mates, the more I’ll come down on you.”