Union whistleblower Andrew Quirk questions the clean-up of corruption in the building industry and foreshadows a further decline in building standards if this is not achieved.  

In its rush to liquidate the corrupt leaderships of the Victorian and NSW construction unions, the government has failed to part the head from the snake. The current New South Wales organisation, for instance, largely reports to the exiled leadership some of whose members are facing criminal charges..

There are now millions and millions of dollars in outstanding workers’ entitlements due from companies, some owned by violent and very greedy criminals.

These crooks will now consider liquidating their companies to avoid paying unionised CFMEU workers, who are also the victims of their crimes. In many cases, the companies will re-emerge to rip-off more workers as ‘phoenix firms’, aided and abetted by lazy or corrupt unionism.

In the normal process of investigating a failure to pay entitlements the union (that is a union with organisers of integrity), sends an official to look at the building site induction records, compare them to various other records, examine the shortfall and get the builder to hold the money until the members are paid their entitlements.

If the outstanding sum is significant, the men sit in in the sheds until the builder coughs up. Failure to recoup outstanding entitlements from corrupt building companies in 2014 resulted in death threats delivered by members of the current exiled NSW CFMEU leadership to the then senior executive officer of the union, Brian Fitzpatrick, as he tried to draw attention to this issue. 

This is the original crime from 2014 which garnered organised crime more than $1 million. Led by now convicted organised crime figure George Alex, it was widely known that corrupt union officials received $5000 a week.

Evidence to the Trade Union Royal Commission strongly suggested a senior CFMEU organiser personally visited George Alex’s house to receive the money in envelopes conveniently left in the toilets.

Recently released police tapes further reveal Alex boasting of the large number of CFMEU officials in his pocket.

The hive-like influence of organised crime groups within the construction industry is supported by a venal ecosystem of bottom-feeding liquidators and lawyers. Putting on public record through official reports the presence of these figures is vital and a process the administrator has commenced. These people thrive in the shadows and fear the slow grinding exposure of their criminality.

Follow the money

It is however just as important to follow the money. Some of the current officials and organisers still operating the NSW branch of the CFMEU are unlikely to enforce these entitlements as their loyalties are still likely to lie with the exiled leadership holed up at the Sydney Branch of the MUA. Why the MUA would give grace and favour to this lot is beyond me.

To identify an entitlement shortfall in labour hire or traffic control, you need to inform a branch official. If you do this, you still run the risk that, via the exiled leadership which was decapitated due to its links with organised crime, the investigation may become known even before the builder is notified of an industrial dispute. 

I know of this first-hand. When I raised concerns in 2014, the national CFMEU held a sham internal inquiry, the details of which leaked directly to organised crime figures.

While the administrator has significant powers and resources, it should be noted that in many ways they are evenly matched by organised crime, who are resourced by the proceeds of their crimes, have extensive personal networks and can call on the services of expensive lawyers and liquidators. 

Containing the influence of organised crime might be more straightforward nationally, given the majority of these companies are limited to labour hire and traffic control. However, the corruption in New South Wales has spread to the Gyprock sector which has dire implications for the infrastructure projects of the New South Wales state government.

Falling standards

At this point, I’d ask anybody reading this to indulge me in a little construction mansplaining. Building a hospital, school or police station is obviously different from building home units 

There are all sorts of specialist requirements to each of these constructions: police interview rooms which are not soundproof are obviously useless; evacuation and fire suppression systems in schools have their own set of safety requirements; hospitals require everything from parking, waiting rooms, and administration blocks even before you install the specialist medical equipment.

In NSW under the notorious former CFMEU leadership there has been a wholesale deskilling of the plasterboard sector as the contracts were routinely awarded on neither cost nor skill but on influence or bribery. The plasterboard guys are the people who lay out the internal walls that define a building. In a normal block of units, a fire suppressant board with acoustic properties might go in the lift lobby, after that, it’s all the run-of-the-mill plasterboard you see at Bunnings.

In a hospital, however, you will have several different types of specialist plasterboard. In terms of the internal fit-out this is also the key trade in that it interacts most with the other trades. There is always a temptation for a shoddy builder to employ a second-rate plasterboard contractor. You just employ a first-class tradie to go round and clean up the crap job, to put lipstick on the pig so to speak. 

All that’s required is the job must last just long enough for any liability the builder has to expire, after that the people that bought the buildings can go and eat dirt.

Unfolding disaster

This in essence is the source of the slow-moving disaster unfolding in the New South Wales home unit sector. Shoddy labour patched up long enough for the builders to hop off into the sunset with their money. It is also in essence the scope of the potential disaster left by this corrupt former CFMEU officialdom. Shoddy hospitals, shitty schools and second-rate police stations.

Bear in mind this deskilling has occurred against the neo-liberal backdrop of underfunding skills training, and the privatisation of building inspectors. 

The benefit for the corrupt officials is a bribe, the benefit for the corrupting subcontractors it’s a contract. For the builder, the benefit of this corruption is a cheap contract which features substandard wages and conditions for workers. To pretend the builder does not know about all this beggars belief. 

As a state government with local knowledge and as the builder, the New South Wales government does at least have some steps it could take against this chicanery. 

Requiring an immediate copy of induction books and an examination of wages and entitlements paid on infrastructure projects are all obvious first steps. Because of the disaster in the unit building sector the state government also has the construction knowledge necessary to assess the performance of these projects.

It is important to note that this attack on EBA conditions is currently being undertaken by a prominent second-tier infrastructure specialist on state government projects as we speak.

The fact is, the former leadership was undermining workers’ entitlements and allowing the roll-out of shonky EBA conditions. The state government, the administrator – and any incoming clean union leadership – will need to act in the interests of the members to get this all cleaned up.

The Setka Circus: get the gangsters out off CFMEU and the building industry for unions sake

This post was originally published on Michael West.