Union figure's rap sheet shows cost of culture
A senior construction union organiser jailed for two counts of assault has been held up as an example of “an intolerable culture that prevails” in the CFMEU.
Senior Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union NSW organiser Luke Collier was jailed late last year on two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, common assault and affray and entering premises with intent to commit an indictable offence.
Collier is serving three months ahead of further charges pending from an alleged assault in NSW, but he appears to have had some potential legal storm clouds cleared away.
Collier reportedly pleaded guilty at Downing Street Local Court to assaulting his former partner, but the charges were dropped when the alleged victim declined to give evidence.
The CFMEU has been criticised in Parliament on claims that it does not adequately deal with domestic violence within its ranks.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is waiting for Mr Collier’s release, so that it can charge him with intimidating inspectors from the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate, and with assault under NSW law.
The new charges stem from revelations at the Heydon Royal Commission.
The hearing dates are expected to be revealed later this month.
Collier has been the subject of multiple allegations by Fair Work Building and Construction, the industry regulator, which has alleged that he called one female investigator a “f**king slut” and spat at her on a Sydney worksite.
But FWBC says it has been unable to serve Collier because had moved to WA following the incident.
The industrial umpire did manage to suspend Mr Collier’s right of entry permit last year, but that suspension expires this week.
FWBC Director Nigel Hadgkiss told a recent estimates hearing that union thuggery and ‘militantism’ was getting out of control.
He says there has been a 50 per cent increase in matters placed before the court in the past financial year compared with the year before.
He said the unions see penalties for breaching workplace laws as a “tolerable cost of doing business” that are “failing to have a deterrent effect” on “intimidating” behaviour by CFMEU organisers.
“I fully expect this behaviour to continue,” Mr Hadgkiss said.