The ABCC is taking legal action against a builder for allegedly dismissing a worker who had requested back pay. Court documents filed make a series of allegations ranging from a failure to pay the worker correctly for hours worked, a failure to pay all termination entitlements, and dismissing a worker who sought to exercise a workplace right.

While the case has yet to be heard, the action is a timely reminder that the ABCC has a broad remit to monitor compliance with a wide range of workplace laws that apply in the building and construction industry, and not just the obligations under the Building Code 2016.

Since it was re-established in late 2016, the ABCC has been given the role of enforcing Commonwealth workplace relations legislation that covers areas including:

•    Wages and entitlements
•    Unprotected industrial action
•    Freedom of association
•    Coercion
•    Discrimination
•    Sham arrangements
•    Unlawful pickets
•    Right of entry.

The court action is a good reminder of the need for all industry participants to ensure they meet their compliance obligations and the willingness of the ABCC to take action against anyone who does the wrong thing.

The action comes as the Federal Court has imposed penalties totalling $55,080 against the CFMMEU and its site delegate after he pressured a landscaper to join the union before he would be allowed to work on a Toowoomba building site ‘for a couple of days’. The CFMMEU was fined $48,600, with the site delegate, Peter D’Arcy, penalised $6480.

In handing down the penalties, Justice Egan found that D’Arcy’s conduct amounted, ‘effectively, and practically’, to coercion. He commented that ‘…the worker would effectively be working to pay the union its dues rather than working for his own monetary gain. After paying the union fee, the worker would have had nothing to show for his having provided his labour.’, and that ‘… the conduct on the part of [D’Arcy], when told by the worker that he would be working for nothing if he signed both forms [union membership and payroll deduction forms], was one of indifference to the plight of the worker’.

The findings serve as yet another timely reminder of the need for the ABCC – a regulator that has shown itself willing and able to hold the union to account for their bullying of workers and small businesses.