Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has joined the HSU national executive in calling for the secretary of the union's Victoria No 1 branch, Diana Asmar, to stand aside pending the outcome of a FWC investigation into alleged financial irregularities.
FWC general manager Murray Furlong's bid to install an administrator in CFMEU construction division branches has hit a minor speed hump at its first court outing, with the presiding judge standing aside because he prosecuted officeholders when he acted as a barrister for the ABCC and its predecessors.
The Minns Government in NSW is moving this week to put an administrator into the CFMEU construction and general division's State-registered branch for up to five years.
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has this afternoon called on the CFMEU's "rogue" construction division to cooperate with FWC general manager Murray Furlong's Federal Court bid to put four of its branches into administration, while making it clear that he will intervene to support the application and reiterating that he will legislate for the same result if the union resists.
FWC GM Murray Furlong has applied to the Federal Court today to have four CFMEU construction and general division branches put into administration, while he has left the door open for two more to go the same way.
New Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has called on the CFMEU's construction division to cooperate with the imposition of a government-nominated administrator, arguing that despite its appointment yesterday of an independent investigator the union cannot undertake its own "clean-out".
The FWC will apply greater scrutiny to agreements made with the CFMEU's construction and general division, in the wake of allegations about the union's conduct.
The CFMEU construction and general division's national office has appointed high-profile silk Geoffrey Watson to investigate allegations of criminal wrongdoing in some branches.
New Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has confirmed that he will introduce legislation if needed to ensure the FWC can take over the administration of CFMEU construction division branches accused of corruption, while dampening any expectation of further IR reform before the next election.
CFMEU construction and general division national secretary Zach Smith has told members today he expects the FWC to seek to begin the process of appointing an administrator to "a number of branches" within days, but has not indicated whether the union will formally resist the move.
