3mm puddle of water halted $20b rail project, CFMEU inquiry told

The CFMEU brought one of the major worksites for the $20 billion Cross River Rail to a halt over a three-millimetre puddle of water, an inquiry into the union heard on Tuesday.

The Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU heard evidence from former Woolloongabba Cross River Rail site manager Justin Bishop, of CPB Contractors, who testified frivolous safety checks slowed work at the site considerably.

“Over a massive site such as Cross River Rail, if you’ve got access egress issues as such, I want to take these guys straight to the area, review it, and get it fixed straight away,” he said.

“But they’re never ever going to give you a definitive location as to where the issue is, so that turns into a seven-hour safety walk, in which not much safety is being reviewed.”

Bishop said, on one occasion, the entire site was shut down due to an isolated three-millimetre puddle after rain.

“On this particular day, I got a call from one of my supervisors that the safety committee wanted to conduct a wet-weather walk, which is generally what happens after a rain event,” he said.

“And for you know safety reasons – slips, trips, and falls, and also you’ve got electrical boards and stuff that are external – but on this particular day, on the way to the station box, the guys [said], ‘No, we’re not going to work’.

“I said, ‘Why?’. [They said] ‘a three-mil puddle of water – we can’t walk through that’ and that’s the sort of stuff that you’re dealing with.

“If I’ve got 400, 350 men sitting in the shed, and a genuine safety concern of a three-mil puddle of water, someone’s paying.”

Bishop also described an incident in which union health and safety representative Ritchie Atutolu hijacked a morning safety briefing to demand weekly Friday barbecues for workers.

“I said to him there’s no budget to supply a barbecue to 400 men or 600 men every Friday – it’s just not going to happen,” he said.

“...He didn’t like that. And there was another guy there, Zach Hilton – Zach’s a pretty quiet, reserved bloke – and as Richie was giving me a bit of lip and and and carrying on, putting on a show, Zach said, ‘Stop carrying on’ and then it escalated from there.”

Atutolu became aggressive towards Hilton, Bishop said, telling him to ‘get the f— up’ and continue the conversation outside.

Bishop said his dealings with the union were disappointing, but expected.

“From my perspective, these guys should be working hand in hand with me,” he said.

“We should be working together, joined at the hip, but the reality is that’s not the case.

“It’s sad, really, but out of my control. I can only try and do the best I can for my company and for my client, and make sure everyone gets home safe and sound.”

Later, Georgiou Group senior project manager Joseph Barker, who worked on the M1 Exit 41 project, said he was approached by CFMEU organisers Dean Rielly and Margues Pare on October 27, 2021.

During that exchange, Rielly demanded union-approved subcontractors be appointed to the job. If Barker did not comply, he said, Rielly would go to his car and “grab [his] bat and start swinging it around”.

“[Rielly] said, ‘I’m not going to hit you. I just might start swinging around in the car park.’ and I responded, ‘I’m in the car park. Are you still threatening me?’ He said, ‘No. I’ll just start swinging it around the car park’,” Barker said.

Barker told the inquiry he felt it was a “definite attempt to intimidate” him and he was shocked the incident had not been pursued by the Fair Work Ombudsman, which had investigated the CFMEU actions at the site.

“[I was] very frustrated – I’d invested a lot of time into collecting and compiling data, being interviewed.

“The two days on the witness stand were very frustrating, and then utter disappointment that it was just dropped.”

Commissioner Stuart Wood noted “it gets worse”.

“Mr Rielly was removed, wasn’t he, by the administrator and then got a job in New South Wales and got his permit back by a current member of the Fair Work Commission,” he said.

“You’ve got the Fair Work Ombudsman not prosecuting a serious aspect, and despite everything that Mr Rielly’s done – and we’ve heard a lot about it in this commission – the Fair Work Commission gives him his permit back.”

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