'There is no possible justification for the conduct,' says FWO
The Construction, Forestry, and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) has received a penalty of $168,000 for the "obnoxious, bullying interactions" involving its officials at a construction site in Melbourne.
The penalty imposed by the Federal Court includes the $150,000 against the CFMEU and the $18,000 against its official, Paul Tzimas.
The offence involved Tzimas and another CFMEU official who entered the West Gate Tunnel construction site and proceeded to a scaffold area in an exclusion zone in December 2019.
When they were asked to leave, Tzimas is said to have called a WorkSafe Victoria inspector "corrupt," a "disgrace," and a "lapdog" to the site's construction contractor.
He also allegedly called the Victorian Police officers at the site a "disgrace" and a "lapdog" to the contractor, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Tzimas, and, through him and another union official, the CFMEU, admitted to violating the Fair Work Act by acting in an improper manner at the construction site.
Justice John Leslie Snaden said the officials tried to "appropriate unto themselves an authority that they plainly did not possess" and bullied those who challenged them with unwarranted insults and abuse.
"There is no possible justification for the conduct in which they engaged; and yet each felt licensed to obstruct the performance of work, and to bully and abuse those who sought to persuade them not to, including independent third parties who were unwittingly called upon to deploy their expertise in a difficult situation in the middle of the night," Snaden said as quoted by the FWO.
According to Snaden, there was also a need to impose penalties to discourage similar offences from others in the future.
"The court must exact a heavy toll: not merely to ensure that Mr. Tzimas and the CFMEU are brought to account for the obnoxious, bullying interactions in which they indulged; but also to serve as a deterrent to others who might otherwise be minded to act in an inappropriate manner when exercising rights of entry," he said.
Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth said the penalties also validated the severity of the violations committed.
"There is no place for improper conduct by permit holders on any worksite," Booth said in a statement.
According to the FWO, it has already secured penalties worth more than $3.5 million in court cases that have been finalised since 2022.
