- The Guardian
- Issue #2113
Union picketers at the Cross River rail Albert site in Brisbane.
The Labor government, in collaboration with the Coalition, has passed legislation on 21 August aimed at decapitating and destroying the CFMEU. Doing the dirty work of construction companies, the Albanese government was at one with the Liberals, the traditional party of the bosses, and agreed to amendments toughening the anti-union Administration bill.
The bill puts the CFMEU’s Construction and General Division and all of its branches into administration.
The administration took effect as soon as the Minister for Workplace Relations Minister Senator Murray Watt issued a scheme spelling out the rules for the administration and the appointment of administrator Mark Irving SC.
The legislation overrides all provisions of the Fair Work Act, the right to natural justice, and the power of the Senate to pass a motion disallowing a legislative instrument – a law made by the minister or delegated authority under an Act.
UNPRECEDENTED POWERS
The Minister’s scheme empowers the administrator to:
- Terminate or suspend the employment of CFMEU employees including elected union officials
- Declare elected positions vacant
- Determine the timing of elections of officers
- Take disciplinary action, including expelling members from the union
- Disqualify officers for any period up to life without the need to comply with the union’s rules
- Manage and dispose of property, spend the union’s money, and have any power or perform any function that any official, branch, or division could prior to administration
- Alter the rules of the CFMEU without the need for membership approval
- Employ people to assist him, and delegate powers to them.
The original bill gave the administrator the power to expel members and disqualify union officers for up to five years. The Coalition’s amendments provide for the possibility of permanent disqualification from holding office or representing members.
The administration period has been amended from up to 3 years to at least 3 years.
The administrator will control everything as if he were the union.
There is retrospectivity: Irving must ensure officers and employees have complied with the law and continue to do so, including before the bill was passed. This includes when the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) operated.
BANNED FOR LIFE
Wherever officers and employees of the union haven’t complied with the law, now or in the past, the administrator is required to “ensure they are held accountable for having not done so.” The bill does not restrict the administrator in instances where fines have already been issued and paid.
It engages in the rhetoric of fascism, introducing a category of worker to be known under the Fair Work Act as a “removed person.” A “removed person” is an official, employee, or union delegate who is sacked, removed from their position, suspended, or whose position “otherwise comes to an end” during administration.
Employees, officials, and delegates removed by the administrator (or resigning after 1 July 2024) cannot represent workers in enterprise bargaining negotiations anywhere, potentially for life.
“Removed persons” are not permitted to run for any union office, be appointed to any union office, or work for any union, possibly for life, without gaining permission from the Fair Work Commission.
The penalty for breaching the “removed person” provisions is $187,800 (600 penalty units).
OVERRIDES LAW
The scheme of administration and the actions of the administrator are not bound by the Fair Work Act or the CFMEU’s rules even after the administration ends.
The administrator has similar draconian powers to the former Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) in being able to compel people to provide information, surrender documents, and “provide assistance”. Penalty for refusal is also $187,800.
The bill makes it a crime to act in a way that prevents “another person or body … from taking action under a scheme” or preventing the administrator “from effectively administering.”
Anyone attempting to defend the union or its resources could be subject to a criminal penalty of 2 years in prison or a hefty fine of $939,000 (3,000 penalty units). This is backdated to actions before 1 July 2024, prior to the legislation.
Anyone who has been fined, been the target of the ABCC, walked off the job, called for ‘unprotected action’ or has lost their right of entry permit is likely to be targeted.
The administrator is indemnified if he believes he was doing the right thing!
The CFMEU pays for everything – administration expenses, remuneration for the administrator, pays for people the administrator appoints, and any other costs incurred by the administrator.
This is members’ money. It does not belong to the administrator.
The aim is to destroy the union, disqualify militant officials from holding office in the CFMEU or any other union for life and destroy the union using its members’ money.
Industrial relations law, other laws and the Parliament are overridden, with the administrator and minister having unprecedented, undemocratic powers.
This is far worse than deregistration. The legislation has been passed on the basis of allegations – unproven allegations by corporate media with no right to the presumption of innocence. The union belongs to its members, not an external administrator, government minister, or the Fair Work Commission.
The bill could be amended to cover any other union.
This is an attack on all unions, all workers, it will not stop at the CFMEU.
It can only be defeated by a united union movement and community support.
Irving will control everything as if he were the union
CPA banner from South Australia.
