A union and six ACT branch officials have been fined a combined $200,000 for multiple entry breaches at several Canberra construction sites.
In a decision handed down on Monday, the Federal Circuit Court fined the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union $138,000 for breaching entry at project sites in Franklin, Harrison and Wright during a seven-month period between 2013 and 2014.
The court also fined six officials of the union's ACT branch, including the union's then secretary Dean Hall and the current secretary Jason O'Mara, a combined $63,500.
In a brief statement, the union said it was considering its response to the court decision, and would be seeking advice on whether to mount an appeal.
The union officials walked onto the construction sites while failing to show entry permits, did not comply with occupational health and safety standards and hindered work on the site.
In one instance, Mr Hall scaled the scaffolding of a construction site in Wright and hindered a concrete pour on the project.
He was fined $27,000 for seven breaches of the Fair Work Act.
Mr O'Mara was penalised $12,000 for refusing to produce his federal entry permit at a construction site and for failing health and safety requirements at another and was fined for three breaches of the act.
Judge Warwick Neville said the actions of the union officials could have been readily avoided.
"The interruptions ranged from ultimately stopping the last stages of a concrete pour, to extended and quite testy engagements between union officials and management and to clear flouting of health and safety directions while on site," Mr Neville said.
"Properly managed and appropriately informed, in my view, each and every action by the union officials involved, which have resulted in the contraventions established, need not have occurred."
The judgment said the union was one of the most forthright and belligerent unions in the building industry.
"It has been around a long time. Its long experience and that of its officials would be difficult to challenge," Mr Neville said.
"This makes it all the more perplexing how regularly around the country it somehow, but consistently misguidedly and ill-informed, thinks that 'might is right', especially when so many warnings and cautions have been issued by the courts."
The fines come after the union was fined almost $160,000 in July for unlawfully picketing outside the Constitution Place development in Civic.
Commissioner of the Australian Building and Construction Commission Stephen McBurney said the recent penalties were significant for the officials and for the union.
"When permit holders misuse and abuse their right of entry powers in such a flagrant manner as in this case, the ABCC will not hesitate to investigate and litigate," Mr McBurney said.
"The ABCC is committed to enforcing the rule of law on building sites in the ACT and throughout Australia."
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