Judge slams ABCC

Date: 13 October 2008

The Queensland Plumbers Union says the Australian Building and Construction Commission a gross
waste of tax payers and called for it to be scrapped after a case against the union was thrown out of court.

The union said ABCC Queensland Manager Wayne Jenkinson and ABCC Investigator Steve Lovewell should be dismissed for wasting tax payers money and public time.

Federal Court Judge, Justice Spender stated in his judgement on Wednesday 8 October, "The case, as brought and as evidenced by the evidence yesterday, was misconceived, was completely without merit and should not have been brought."

The Queensland State Secretary of the Plumbers Union, Bradley O'Carroll, said the case showed how the ABCC protects big business and property developers.

"The union was standing up for workers who were being scammed by Gold Coast plumbing company Underground. But the ABCC came after us. Even Judge Spender pointed out that if the ABCC was even handed, charges should have been brought against the company. The Judge went so far as to call the Managing Director of Underground "a foul-mouthed industrial cowboy".

"In a cold hearted and callous way, the ABCC served papers on me on Christmas Eve. For the, past ten months I've had the threat of a personal fine of $66,000 hanging over my head, and $360,000 for the union," said Mr O'Carroll.

The case related to a union meeting on 21 February 2007 at Rap Civic Southport Central Construction Site. The union was called in by site workers after they had not been paid their super or redundancy as agreed in their collective agreement.

"This is a victory for the union movement and for Rights on Site. The government needs to realise the game is up, and move to abolish this overtly political attack dog of the failed Howard Government," said Mr O'Carroll.

For further information

Contact:	Keiller MacDuff
Union:	Plumbers Union
Contact Mobile:	0432 828 006
WWW:	http://www.rightsonsite.org.au/

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