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On March 19, 2008, CFMEU organiser Walter Molina told employees of a contractor on the Coles-Myer distribution centre building site at Perth Airport that they could not work on the site unless they became union members.
He went on to tell the contractor’s industrial relations manager that the employees could not return to the site unless they signed up to the union.
ABC commissioner Leigh Johns said the "no ticket, no start" policy, espoused by some union representatives, was out of date.
“Every Australian worker has the right to choose whether or not to join a union and they should be able to go about their work without being pressured one way or the other," Johns said.
“Union representatives are permitted to inform workers about the benefits of joining a union, but a legal line is crossed if they tell workers they have to sign up as a condition of working at a particular site, as occurred in this instance.”
Federal Magistrate Lucev ordered the CFMEU to pay $4620, the CFMEUW to pay $3960 and Molina to pay $660 in penalties.
This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication ConstructionIndustryNews.net.
