Labour leader fined for racial abuse

Fines totaling $24,000 have been imposed by the Federal Court after CFMEU official Bradley Upton racially abused a construction company representative on a site in 2012.

Mr Upton was fined $4,000 while the union was fined $20,000.

It means that the total fines received by the construction union and its affiliates have been more than $6.1 million since the introduction of Fair Work Building and Construction and its predecessor agencies.

Mr Upton, on his first visit to the site, made obscene remarks to one site representative and told another to hit him when he was unsatisfied with a meeting room allocated for his discussions with workers.

Justice Gilmour, who presided over the case, praised the representative for not responding to Mr Upton’s calls for violence.

“It would not have been surprising, in the circumstances, if the site representative had hit Upton,’’ Justice Gilmour said.

“However, he did not respond to the challenges, turned his back on Upton and walked away. Upton then followed him. The site representative’s exercise of self-control was commendable and stands in stark relief against the lack of it displayed by Upton. I regard Upton’s conduct as deplorable particularly so for someone acting in his official capacity … I regard it as a serious contravention.”  

The court added that the language was obscene and had a nasty racist overtone.

It isn't the first incident that the CFMEU has been involved in.

Earlier this year, Business News revealed that 10 Western Australian construction union officials were before the courts with 50 alleged Fair Work breaches between them.

Assistant secretary Joseph McDonald had 10, while state secretary Michael Buchan had nine.

Analysis reported in 2014 indicated Mr McDonald had personally cost the union upwards of $1 million since 2005.