The facts
- On average, 50 construction workers are killed each year from work related incidents and illnesses.
- The Cole Royal Commission devoted over 90% of public hearing time to anti-union topics. 81% was devoted to attacking the CFMEU.
- The productivity of the Australian construction industry is equal or higher to those of the US, Japan and Western Europe.
- Not one employer was questioned by the Cole Commission over OHS practices.
- Howard’s Building Industry Laws have been condemned five times by the International Labour Organisation.
- The ABCC will cost Australian taxpayers $165.4 million for the period 2007-08 to 2011-12, under current budget forward estimates.
Who is running this campaign?
The Combined Construction Unions is an alliance of five unions representing the tradies and labourers at the heart of Australia’s construction industry.
Across Australia 900,000 workers, including bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, crane operators, welders and plumbers, make their living on construction sites, or in the shops and factories that supply them.
Many of these workers are members of our unions – the Australian Workers Union (AWU), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), Plumbing Trades Employees Union (PTEU) and the CFMEU Construction Division.
The Combined Construction Unions have a proud history of collective achievement, working together to produce high quality Australian infrastructure while protecting the health and safety of workers in a dangerous industry.
We will now use our combined resources to fight the harsh and unfair building industry laws introduced by the Howard Government.
About the ABCC
The Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner (ABCC) was created by the Howard Government in 2005 to enforce its laws and ‘criminalise’ much union-related activity on construction sites.
Its predecessor, the Building Industry Taskforce, was set up in the wake of the politically driven Cole Royal Commission into the building and construction industry.
While its brief is to oversee adherence to industrial law, the ABCC conspicuously fails to investigate or prosecute employers underpaying workers or breaching safety regulations.
Rather, it targets individual workers involved in union or collective activity not strictly related to EBA negotiations.
Even if a worker is killed on site, his colleagues must be able to prove they had a reasonable concern about an imminent risk to themselves to legally stop work and assess the safety situation.
Passersby can also be interrogated by the ABCC for witnessing activities on a building site.
The ABCC has the power to seek fines against individual workers of up to $22,000 and gag interviewees. Anyone who refuses to cooperate fully faces a potential 6 month jail term.
More than 92 construction workers have been secretly interrogated by the ABCC.
Ahead of the 2007 election, the Rudd Labor Government promised to keep the ABCC in place until 2010.
Cole Royal Commission
In August 2001, the Cole Royal Commission was established by the Howard Government with the brief of investigating unlawful or inappropriate conduct in the building industry.
In reality, it was a politically driven exercise to boost a desperate government’s electoral chances and engage in publicly funded union-bashing.
Rather than investigating the dodgy practices by employers and developers that are rife in the industry, or safety standards that result in an average of one workplace fatality each week, the Cole Commission focused on union conduct.
Nevertheless, the Cole Commission did not uncover the endemic corruption or criminality by union officials that was used as the justification for its establishment.
The Cole Royal Commission cost taxpayers $66 million.
Know your Rights on Site
ABCC officers have the legal right to enter construction sites to investigate industrial issues such as breaches of awards or industrial laws.
They do NOT have police powers. They can’t arrest you, use force against you, enter your home, or force you to answer questions on the spot.
However, they can summons workers – and members of the public – for secret interrogation over industrial issues.
If you suspect the ABCC is present at your workplace:
do not approach or talk to an ABCC officer;
- call your union office immediately and advise them the ABCC is on site;
- don’t be provoked – remember the ABCC may use secret recording devices;
- remember you have no obligation to talk to the ABCC unless you are given at least 14 days’ written notice;
- if you are served with a notice, contact your union office for legal advice.
Being summonsed by the ABCC is a serious matter. You can be jailed or fined for failing to cooperate.
