ABCC preliminary findings

A paper by Murray Wilcox, the former Federal Court judge who is reviewing the role of the body to replace the Australian Building and Construction Commission after early 2010, makes a number of preliminary findings.

• Building workers were treated more harshly by the law than other workers.
• There was powerful evidence that a culture of lawlessness by some building union officials and workers existed before 2003.
• An economic analysis trumpeted by the former government and employers of improved productivity was deficient.

The Government has vowed to keep the commission until the end of January 2010, when it will be replaced by a special division within Labor's new industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia.

Mr Wilcox's review, which has involved meetings with more than 100 stakeholders, said the most controversial decision was whether the Government should keep the building industry legislation.

Mr Wilcox said if the watchdog kept its special powers then safeguards to monitor it would be desirable.

"These rules treat building workers more harshly than workers in other industries," Mr Wilcox said.

"However, many employers argue they are necessary in order to maintain industrial peace and high productivity in the building industry. I am looking for hard evidence about that."

Under current laws building workers can be jailed for up to six months for refusing to give evidence to the commission.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union said Mr Wilcox had also demolished an Econtech report relied upon by employers to justify the existence of the ABCC. That report had attributed the boost in productivity in the construction industry to the ABCC and associated laws. It also found the regime had resulted in a big fall in industrial action on building sites.

Mr Wilcox found the reduction in time lost in the building industry between 1996 and last year was not necessarily attributable to the ABCC.

He said ABS statistics showed there was also substantial reduction in time lost in other industries during the same 12-year period and "community-wide" factors may have been responsible for most, if not all, of the reduction in lost time in the construction industry.