CFMEU ACT has written to the Commonwealth work safe authority, Comcare, in protest over its handling of a safety investigation at the Cotter Dam project.

“The Union is particularly concerned that Comcare may have jeopardised workers who discussed safety problems at the site with an investigator late last year,” said Dean Hall, Secretary of the CFMEU ACT Branch.

CFMEU ACT welcomes the decision by Master Builders to drop a short-course in dogging that was designed to by-pass national regulations for licensed dogging in the industry.

“This was the only sensible course of action Master Builders could take, since their course for a ‘partial license’ in dogging does not comply with national safety and training laws, as WorkSafe ACT has pointed out, ” said CFMEU ACT Secretary Dean Hall.

The UK Blacklist Support Group issued the following Media Release following the decision by the Employment Tribunal on Friday January 20, 2012: 

Agency workers have no legal protection against blacklisting by multi-national firms according to a shock decision in the Central London Employment Tribunal today.

The court found that Dave Smith (an engineer) had been blacklisted by the respondents Carillion (JM) Limited and Schal International Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Carillion) because he raised concerns about asbestos on building sites and because of his trade union activities. The firms actually admitted that their managers had supplied the malicious information to Mr Smith's blacklist file in a signed statement to the court.

CFMEU ACT Branch is again targeting safety in the construction industry, after two serious incidents and a death of a worker in the past four weeks.

“Civil contractors seem to have dropped the ball when it comes to safety,” said Dean Hall, CFMEU ACT Secretary. “And half the safety incidents occurring across the construction industry are not being reported properly.”