‘We own Fair Work’: Cairns companies recount decade of CFMEU intimidation

A Cairns small business owner was told the CFMEU “owned” Fair Work after a confrontation in his office, the Commission of Inquiry into the union’s conduct was told on Friday.

As the commission concluded its Cairns hearings, it heard evidence of intimidation and suspected sabotage by the union at the $176 million Cairns Convention Centre project, which was completed in 2023.

But Commissioner Stuart Wood heard the pattern of behaviour in Far North Queensland started more than a decade earlier.

Status Signs director Rhys Carmady told the inquiry CFMEU delegates attended his work premises in 2010, after complaints of underpayment by two of his staff.

Carmady described how two “big burly guys” came to speak to him, at the request of the two members, at which point they came in “quite aggressive”.

“We’d informed them that we’d had legal advice and the matter wasn’t an issue – we weren’t liable for anything there,” he said.

“They made it clear they wanted to get a union majority within our business. I think the words were they wanted to then take control of the office so that the employees could dictate terms on what the employment agreements were.

“Obviously, not having gone through this before and being new to the business, it was a bit distressing and I basically said we’re looking at going to Fair Work if that’s the case.

“One of them made a comment that they own Fair Work and we wouldn’t win that. Then I made a comment that, financially, what you’re asking for would cause the business issues, which they replied: ‘We don’t give a f— if your business goes broke, we’re going to get what we want’.”

It was the first of several interactions Status Signs would have with the CFMEU in the years to come, Carmady said.

In one interaction at the Convention Centre worksite in 2020, Carmady recalled CFMEU delegate Hayden Jones grabbing him by the shirt while he was in a conversation with representatives from builder Lendlease, though he later said he did not feel personally threatened.

Jones would go on to receive a delegate-of-the-year award from the CFMEU for his workers’ advocacy on the site.

“I felt he thought I was ignoring him, which I wasn’t – I was just trying to finish that conversation,” Carmady said.

“He then made the comments ‘watch out’ and ‘we can make life harder’.”

Carmady said he felt concerned about the site after that interaction, and those concerns proved well-founded, with allegations of industrial sabotage.

At the direction of Lendlease, Carmady sent his workers to the site after 6pm to avoid the CFMEU, which doubled labour costs due to penalty rates.

But that strategy did not work.

“I received a phone call the first night from our staff, basically saying as they’d gone to site, the CFMEU turned up as they must be aware we were commencing works after hours,” Carmady said.

“That night, we didn’t manage to achieve anything. There were comments [from CFMEU members] made about hoping to sign on to the logbook and then when our staff went to do their pre-start to pull out the logbook, there was no logbook in there.

“It was missing.”

During crossexamination, Chris O’Grady, KC, representing the administrator of the CFMEU, suggested it could have been a “former disgruntled employee” who removed the logbook.

“We hadn’t had employees leave the company. They wouldn’t have been inducted to be able to get back on site,” Carmady said.

O’Grady: “So it could have been someone who didn’t like your business? Or a competitor?”

Carmady: “Anything’s possible.”

O’Grady then turned to Jones, who has been a recurring name during the inquiry’s focus on Far North Queensland.

“You certainly can’t say in any way that it was Mr Jones who did that, because you didn’t witness it and nobody else witnessed it?” he asked.

Carmady replied: “That’s correct.”

Later, worker Jake Reid – a former service manager at Global Hire Services – testified the CFMEU pressured him to leave the same worksite as he was performing maintenance on a scissor lift.

The area in which Reid worked was undercover.

“I just said, ‘look, mate, I don’t work for you. I work for a company that works for Lendlease’,” he said.

“If Lendlease want me offsite, they can come and tell me to get off site, but I’m not gonna listen to you.”

The CFMEU delegate then had a “hissy fit”, Reid said, and stormed off.

Reid did not know the name of the delegate, but was shown a photograph of Jones.

“I’m fairly certain that was him,” he said.

In another incident, Reid said he performed an emergency safety inspection on a spider lift one night after it was discovered to be overdue.

Reid said he completed the inspection, after which two CFMEU representatives challenged his competency.

“Almost immediately, once I turned around and said the machine was good to go and they can jump back on it and use it, both CFMEU reps stood in front of me and told me that there was no way it could be done that quick,” he said.

Despite the inspection being valid, Reid said, the CFMEU shut the entire site down for the night.

Work would later commence at the site, but Reid said no subsequent inspection was ever performed by another party, as his signature remained on the machine’s safety card when it was returned months later.

The inquiry has been adjourned until May 26.

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