Press Releases

The textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) workers’ union is calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to deliver on his promise to protect lives and livelihoods by ensuring Australian manufacturing workers are deployed to produce critical medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) to Australian Governments.
 

The CFMEU National Construction Secretary Dave Noonan has condemned threats by the ABCC to fine construction workers up to $42,000 for participating in next week’s Change the Rules political protests.

The ABCC has issued an email to employers about the political protests around the country next week, advising that workers must seek their boss’s written permission to participate, and that they could face fines of up to $42,000.

The union has described the action as a blatant attempt to frighten workers off attending the political protest.

In a formal submission to the coronial inquest into the death of construction worker Jorge Castillo-Riffo, his widowed partner Pam Gurner-Hall has called for the establishment of a new, independent safety commissioner for South Australia and for coronial inquests into deaths at work to be mandatory.

Mr Castillo-Riffo was crushed to death on the Royal Adelaide Hospital building site in November 2014. 

The CFMEU has called for Malcolm Turnbull’s industrial political attack dog, the ABCC, to be wound up after a judge criticised a case as “a completely unnecessarily waste of public money”.

“Last financial year the Turnbull government spent more than 10 million dollars in its attack on construction workers," said John Setka, Victorian Secretary of the CFMEU Construction Division. “Again and again the Liberal Party’s ABCC is caught out blowing their budget and overreaching in their ideological war against unions.”

A construction company used by Malcolm Turnbull and Michaelia Cash at a press conference in 2016 to announce the prospect of a double dissolution election has admitted to breaking the law.

The CFMEU has called on the Turnbull Government to immediately implement the key finding of the Murray report into Security of Payments. The report recommends that progress claims and retention monies be held in statutory trusts.

The union says the reform would help ensure that sub-contractors were protected and workers could be paid.

CFMEU National Construction Secretary Dave Noonan said head contractors are currently able to access these funds for other purposes such as cash flow.

The CFMEU has welcomed news of a settlement between its former Canberra organiser, John Lomax, and the Australian Federal Police, over his wrongful arrest during the Trade Union Royal Commission (TURC).

CFMEU National Construction Secretary Dave Noonan said the TURC taskforce arrested Mr Lomax in an orchestrated blaze of publicity, ensuring that his arrest and the allegations made against him received widespread national and international media attention.

“Mr Lomax’s good name was dragged through the mud by the Australian Federal Police and the TURC taskforce.”

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