Exclusive : Steven James of Enco Precast, which has been in a high-profile dispute with the CFMEU, says Islanders ‘have barely passed grade seven’

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A Queensland business manager at the centre of a long-running standoff with the construction union has told union officials his Pacific Islander workers are not smart or safety conscious.

“The Islander culture does not have self-preservation,” the general manager of Enco Precast, Steven James, told representatives from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union at a recent meeting, which was recorded by the union.

“I’ve got 30 guys there who have barely passed grade seven at school, you think they can manage their own safety?”

James was confronted about the comments the following day, in a confrontation that was again recorded.

“[You said] the Islanders aren’t that smart. You remember saying that?” a union official asks.

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“Yeah, exactly,” James replies. “Yes I do. It’s fact. It’s fact.”

James told Guardian Australia he had made the comments “under pressure” during a heated discussion with union officials about the validity of their grounds for entering Enco’s factory at Seventeen Mile Rocks, south of Brisbane.

James said union officials had demanded entry to the site on the pretence that workers had blown the whistle about specific safety issues. He said he had been trying to convey that the alleged complaints were “high level” in nature and matters that “my labour force would not understand ... they aren’t involved in them”.

“All I can really say is that I was confronted with four gruellers from the CFMEU trying to push their way on to my work site,” James said.

“What I wanted to say, but in a better way, was that the items they said they had suspicions about, our guys don’t work in the area.

“I probably didn’t say that in the best way, but I was under a bit of pressure.”

James said his workers were “wonderful people” and that he had a high degree of respect for his employees.

“Words spoken in the heat of the moment should not be published. Any comment not shown in its full context can be misconstrued and hurtful to all individuals involved and again shows that the CFMEU regard vengeance much more highly than the rights and wellbeing of employees.”

After union officials gained entry to Enco, Queensland government workplace inspectors issued eight enforcement notices, which require the business to make safety improvements, and issued one $3,600 fine for a failure to maintain a complete register of chemicals. James said none of those “minor” issues was related to the union’s stated grounds for entry.

The footage also shows James attempting to physically block union representatives from accessing the site.

Over the past 14 months CFMEU attempts to exercise entry rights at Enco work sites have devolved into alleged abusive confrontations, court cases and complaints to the state’s corruption watchdog. James has become a face of construction industry resistance to union entry in Queensland.

In May, the union won a landmark ruling when a magistrate, Wendy Cull, dismissed trespass charges against union officials who had been arrested at Enco despite holding a legal right of entry.

Cull awarded $85,000 in costs against the police and said officers had “taken the side of the business owner”.

James said police were now “too scared” to act when union officials turned up and demanded access.

In August, after Enco complained to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission, the state’s Office of Industrial Relations launched an investigation into claims government officials passed confidential information to the union about Enco.

The complaint also alleged a public servant was put under pressure to lodge an anonymous complaint about Enco to later enable the CFMEU to enter the site.

James has previously complained about being abused by union officials.

The CFMEU state secretary, Michael Ravbar, said Enco was “a rogue operator, with a reputation for cutting corners in everything they do, who even tried to use the industrial commission to prevent inspectors visiting the site”.

“You have to ask, when a company is that desperate to avoid proper scrutiny, what is it trying to hide?

“This is a management team that treats its employees with contempt.”

James said none of his employees were union members and that “none want to join”. He said he “pushed back” at the union because his business had been unfairly targeted.

“Unfortunately they just went after us because we were supplying to some jobs they didn’t have a good run on,” he said.