Builder must pay unions $290k for denying entry

Richard Crookes Construction must pay almost $300,000 in fines for blocking unions from entering Sydney work sites to investigate suspected safety breaches.

“If you stand in the way of health and safety inspections we will not hesitate to take federal court action,” he said. The manager then told a security guard to stop another official from entering the site after the guard barged into the unionist.However, he rejected the ETU’s claim the conduct was the product of a company-wide policy due to lack of evidence.Crookes employs 770 people and has 45 to 50 construction projects on at any one time, with contract values ranging from $5 million to $300 million.

Justice Michael Wigney described a construction manager’s instructions to refuse the CFMEU entry to the Opera site “at best, a knee-jerk and ill-considered response to his perceptions of industrial disharmony”.Safework NSW later attended the site and issued improvement notices to Crookes. However, when CFMEU officials attempted to enter the next day Crookes again denied them entry, claiming the visit was an industrial matter rather than a safety matter.

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