Gary Morgan responds to the Federal Court decision regarding Linkhill.

“This is madness. It all began when the CFMEU and ETU approached tradespeople who were working at a non-union site, and encouraged them to support a case against Linkhill. It is suspicious to me because the workers did not make any complaint to the ABCC, the unions did! What’s more, the workers were told ‘there will be some money in it for you if you co-operate with the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), and those workers who informed the ABCC that they did not want to be involved were threatened with potential jail sentences if they didn’t make a statement.



“When Linkhill was initially approached by the ABCC about these allegations, we told them that everyone was paid more than any Award, and if there is anyone who has been underpaid, we will correct the error and pay them immediately. There was no error in our calculations.



“It ended up with the Director of the former ABCC (now the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate) commencing litigation against Linkhill, and spending well over a million dollars, and probably closer to two million dollars, in legal fees, in a case where ten people were all paid more than the Award would entitle them to, and no-one suffered any loss or disadvantage.”

“The ABCC gave misleading and false information to the Court”, Mr Morgan said.

The ten tradespeople, ranging from an electrician and carpenters to several short term labourers, were all found by Federal Circuit Court Judge John O’Sullivan to be employees (rather than contractors) and were found to have been underpaid despite each receiving payment for their services that was substantially more than their full Award entitlements (including overtime, leave and redundancy payments).Linkhill has appealed the Judge’s findings, and will be appealing the penalty order. The appeals are expected to be heard before the end of the year.In response to the ABCC’s actions, Gary Morgan has applied to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, and will pursue criminal charges against the Director of the ABCC.Linkhill is a small private company that holds units in a Trust and employs less than ten permanent staff.

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