The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is alleged to have organised a secondary boycott against Boral, instructing shop stewards to tell Boral customers that its concrete was not permitted on certain commercial construction sites, or that truck deliveries would be subject to time-consuming safety checks if the customer opted to proceed with using the supplier’s concrete.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the boycott stemmed from a dispute that had been ongoing since 2012 between CFMEU and construction company Grocon, for which Boral is the exclusive concrete supplier.
“It is alleged that, as a result of Boral continuing to supply Grocon with concrete during the CFMEU’s dispute with Grocon, the CFMEU targeted Boral by banning it from supplying concrete on metropolitan Melbourne commercial construction sites,” the ACCC explained in a statement.
In addition to investigations undertaken by the ACCC, the CFMEU’s actions have come under the scrutiny of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption that the Federal Government established in March 2014.
Taking legal action
The ACCC has now taken the matter to the Federal Court, and will be seeking pecuniary penalties, declarations, injunctions and publication orders against the CFMEU.
“These proceedings relate to complex allegations of conduct spanning a 14-month period ending in April 2014, and occurring at 12 commercial construction sites,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims explained. “The ACCC’s comprehensive investigation into the allegations against the CFMEU and its executives commenced in April 2013 and the ACCC has only been able to progress the investigation by compelling people to give evidence.”
The Victorian construction sites that were alleged to have engaged in secondary boycott conduct directed at Boral spanned Deer Park, Officer, Port Melbourne, Hawthorn, Tarneit, Richmond, Lilydale, Notting Hill, Williams Landing, Werribee and Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street in the Melbourne CBD.
“The ACCC considers unions have an important role in protecting the rights of workers and ensuring safe and productive workplaces. However, the ACCC will not hesitate to take action where it has evidence that unions or individuals have engaged in conduct which goes beyond what is reasonable to protect workers, and is deliberately targeted at damaging business,” Sims added.
Boral CEO and managing director Mike Kane welcomed the ACCC’s announcement. “For close to two years, Boral has been the subject of this secondary boycott, which has resulted in the intimidation and harassment of our employees and some of our clients and which has cost Boral shareholders more than $10 million during that time,” he said.
Kane added that Boral would continue to co-operate with investigations into the matter while also pursuing its own existing court proceedings against the CFMEU.
The ACCC’s proceedings have been listed for a directions hearing in Melbourne on Friday, 12 December 2014.
Multiple media sources reported a CFMEU spokesperson as stating that the union would “vigorously defend” its position.
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