- $2,500 be paid to the female operations manager of Botany Cranes;
- $15,000 be paid to New South Wales police;
- CFMMEU delegate Howard Byrnes be subject to a personal payment order of $3,500
The Court has ruled that the female Botany Cranes’ operations manager was subjected to intimidation by the picketers’ actions, which Justice Rares described as “…calculated to instil fear into persons who are within or wish to enter those premises.”
The Court ruled the Operations Manager “was an innocent victim of the coercion and unlawful picket for which the Union is liable”.
Justice Rares last month awarded penalties of $1,022,500 against the CFMMEU, NSW CFMMEU President Rita Mallia, Assistant Secretaries Robert Kera and Michael Greenfield following threats and unlawful pickets against Botany Cranes in 2019.
The Court also has ordered that $30,000 be paid to Botany Cranes for lost revenue as a result of the picket.
The ABCC brought proceedings against the CFMMEU alleging its unlawful actions were aimed at coercing Botany Cranes to sign up to a CFMMEU enterprise agreement and reinstate Mr Byrnes who Botany Cranes had earlier dismissed in the belief he was sabotaging the business.
Justice Rares in his April judgment cited NSW police video as evidence of the picketers’ aggressive actions.
“As in this proceeding, a large group of about 50 individuals, mostly comprising apparently strong, physically well-built males blocking or controlling what would otherwise be free entry to and egress from premises while aggressively chanting self-promoting slogans and pumping fists in the air, is calculated to instill fear into persons who are within or wish to enter those premises.
“There could have been no doubt about the intimidatory intent directed towards Botany Cranes of those combining in the picket outside its yard and premises and their conduct, including as manifested in their aggressive chants and gestures.
“The police had to attend in considerable numbers. They are a public resource that had to be diverted from their other activities because the Union indicated that it would engage in a protest that, it was safe to infer, would involve unlawful picketing.”
In respect of Mr Byrnes, the Court made an order that he personally pay $3,500 and ruled:
“… such an order is necessary to deter Mr Byrnes and other from engaging in similar contravening conduct … and because the Union has an embedded culture to treat the payment of penalties as a price of doing business. … Mr Byrnes has not expressed any contrition or acknowledgement that his conduct was unacceptable.”
ABCC Commissioner Stephen McBurney welcomed the decision and final orders.
“There has been no expression of contrition or remorse from the CFMMEU or its officials in this case. The judgment speaks for itself in terms of condemnation of the Union’s history of offending and its conduct in this case,” he said.
“The ABCC will continue to address unlawful conduct. We will pay particular regard to the learnings from this case and seek to give victims a measure of redress. They deserve the full protection provided by the law.”
