The financial implications of the ABCC's Pattinson High Court case being heard today have been reinforced by the Federal Court's latest ruling against the CFMMEU, a judge acknowledging that while the $460,000 fine factored in the union's long history of contraventions it still needed to be "proportionate" to the breaches involved.
In a ruling giving close consideration to how compensation is assessed, the Federal Court has ordered the MUA to pay more than $2 million to Qube Logistics and Patrick stevedores over unlawful wharf stoppages in 2017.
The Federal Court has imposed fines and costs of almost $1 million on the CFMMEU and more than $170,000 on officials and delegates for unlawful picketing and coercion of a crane company to reinstate a sacked delegate and sign an agreement.
The ABCC has secured fines totalling almost $300,000 against the CFMMEU, a union organiser and 16 workers for disrupting a major project in pursuit of a deal, but missed out on a personal payment order after leaving it to the official concerned to "guess" that was its intent.
The Federal Court has penalised the CFMMEU and three construction division WA branch officials $180,000 for organising a half-day strike in 2018 over redundancy pay for Perth Airport rail link workers, 39 of whom also copped $4000 fines.
In a significant judgment closely examining the limits of "industrial activity", a full Federal Court led by Chief Justice James Allsop has overturned penalties imposed on two CFMMEU officials for leading a walk-out from a building site that had no separate toilet for a female worker.
The Federal Court has opted to assign to a referee consideration of two stevedores' "bewildering", multi-million-dollar compensation claim following unlawful bans by the CFMMEU's maritime division in 2017.
The ABCC has enjoyed another mixed result in its campaign to bring the CFMMEU to heel, a Federal Court judge agreeing to impose personal payment orders against three officials involved in picketing a building site but rejecting argument that the union's past record should necessarily attract maximum penalties.
The operator of the "robo-terminal" at Melbourne's Webb Dock says it is re-activating a damages claim against the CFMMEU which seeks to recover $80 million in losses and foregone income from a picket in late 2017.
