Cbus CEO David Atkin appeared before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption yesterday, following his former staff member Lisa Zanatta’s admission of lying under oath about the leaking of member information to Cbus-aligned union, the CFMEU.
The information was subsequently used by the CFMEU in an industrial campaign against construction company Lis-Con, the commission has heard.
Mr Atkin confirmed during questioning yesterday that Ms Zanatta’s employment with the industry fund has since been “terminated”.
Lis-Con solicitor Valerie Heath asked Mr Atkin if he was aware that member information had been leaked by Cbus prior to 3 October.
“Yes, but it was not clear until 3 October that that was information that came from Cbus,” he said, “but we had no evidence that the fund itself had released that inappropriately.”
Asked why Cbus failed to write to members the week before Ms Zanatta’s appearance before the commission, Mr Atkin said he “did not want to interfere with the commission’s proceedings”.
“We were also in dialogue with the Privacy Commission around the complaints,” he said.
“So the view was, while there was those proceedings occurring and while it was unclear [the member information] had actually been released from the fund, we were not in a position to directly communicate with the members,” Mr Atkin said.
Ms Heath produced evidence that Mr Atkin knew CFMEU official Brian Fitzpatrick “was calling members and impersonating Cbus employees”.
Asked why Cbus failed to communicate with members so “they can tell a true Cbus call from a fake call”, Mr Atkin repeated that the industry fund was “reluctant to cross over with anything that the commission was dealing with”.
The hearing continues today.
Steve, if true, that is a lame excuse for Unions using private personal information to pursue the members funds. The ATO is responsible for collecting SGC and fining employers who do not pay on time. That’s the law and the union, once again act as if they’re above the law. Unions must learn that they are not above the law and live within the parameters in which we are all required. Lets hope the RC blows them out of the water and takes Shorten with them – this is the tip of the iceberg.
TD – my apologies for my badly worded original post. When I said “the employers are almost compulsive non-payers” I should have said the construction industry have the highest incidence of non-payment of any industry.
This might only be – say 20% – of employers who don’t pay which means the vast majority do. However, 20% is still much too high and DID justify the original stance of the union.
I also agree that with the technology available today there are other ways of administering this and compulsion to join a particular fund shouldn’t be required any more.
As stated originally, and you have also noted, the union has taken this way beyond looking after the interests of members and into the field of expanding their own power for their own benefit. But the original intention was genuine and was needed.
Steve, hear what your saying and yes it exists. Agree. Father with 48 years as an employer in construction(non union) always paid requirements and entitlements. If the union could enforce payment to cbus why not other funds? This is about building a power base among like minded thugs not the poor employee unfortunately. My father would have gladly handed over verifiable receipt on Union sites to say SGC payments to any fund. Your suggestion of non payment of SGC may have been the excuse but it certainly wasn’t the motive and not the ongoing motivation now.
[quote name=”TD”]I would like to see some focus on Cbus and the way the CFMEU bully people working on union dominated sites to use CBus. No Cbus no work!!! That is the biggest stinker of an arrangement known yet nothing seems to come of it. Cbus wouldnt exist if its use wasn’t enforced by the Union movement.[/quote]
If you know anything about the construction industry, you’ll know that the employers are almost compulsive non-payers of SGC. The union did the right thing originally in requiring workers to be members of CBus so that they could confirm employers were paying – and take action if they weren’t. This was genuinely looking after members funds.
Unfortunately – as often happens – having access to such a large portion of funds presented temptations that some people can’t resist.
Truly independent trustees would solve this but will probably never happen.
I would like to see some focus on Cbus and the way the CFMEU bully people working on union dominated sites to use CBus. No Cbus no work!!! That is the biggest stinker of an arrangement known yet nothing seems to come of it. Cbus wouldnt exist if its use wasn’t enforced by the Union movement.
So the only person punished is the lady that was probably pressured by superiors into supplying the information.
A breach of the Privacy Act is punishable by a jail term isn’t it? Brian Fitzpatrick should pack his toothbrush!
On 14/9/14 Michael Costa the former NSW ALP Treasurer said on the Bolt Report that the Commission needs to focus on the links between the union and industry super funds and said….”the rorts are horrific.” Not a mention of this surprisingly candid admission from an ALP member was made anywhere by the media. Why not?
This is the tip of the industry fund iceberg of corruption and self interest.