McDonald facing court over strike vote

Fair Work Building & Construction has brought Federal Court action against CFMEU WA assistant state secretary Joe McDonald and 49 construction workers.

Mr McDonald, the union, and 13 of the workers face two counts each of unlawful strike action, with a maximum penalty of $10,200 for an individual and $51,000 for a union.

In addition, 36 other workers each face a single count of the offence.

The court action relates to pre-work meetings at the Lakeside Joondalup Redevelopment project in May, the second of which allegedly led to a walk-off by a number of workers.

FWBC alleges that an initial pre-work meeting ran into work time, leading to a mandatory docking of four hours’ pay of all workers involved.

The docking of workers’ pay caused Mr McDonald to call another meeting several days later, which again ran into work time.

According to FWBC, after Mr McDonald learned that the workers would again have their pay docked under the Fair Work Act, he then allegedly called a vote on strike action for the day.

“My agency takes reports of unlawful industrial action very seriously,” FWBC director Nigel Hadgkiss said.

“Reports of strike action becauser the head-contractor is following the law are particularly shocking.” 

Under the Fair Work Act, the head contractor of the project was required to dock the workers’ pay for missing work due to their attendance at a union meeting