Rally of Ark Tribe

12 NOON - MONDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2010
PROTEST OUTSIDE THE ABCC OFFICE
255 ELIZABETH STREET, SYDNEY

CFMEU member Ark Tribe back in court

The building and construction industry continues to be a dangerous workplace. Since the introduction of the Australian Building & Construction Commission (ABCC) there has been a 95% increase in fatalities on building sites.
On 13 September 2010, Ark Tribe, a South Australian rigger and CFMEU member, is again going to appear in the Adelaide Federal Court of Australia - and he is still facing a six months jail term.

WHAT WAS ARK'S CRIME?

Ark Tribe was charged by the ABCC for failing to attend a compulsory interrogation about his involvement in a safety meeting called to improve safety on the Flinders University site.
A worker should never be intimidated by anyone for discussing his workplace's safety. Such intimidation causes fear of reporting when there are safety hazards, which could easily lead to yet another workplace death.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSIONER (ABCC)

The Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner (ABCC) was created by the Howard Government in 2005 to enforce its laws and 'criminalise' much union-related activity on construction sites.
Its predecessor, the Building Industry Taskforce, was set up in the wake of the politically driven Cole Royal Commission into the building and construction industry. While its brief is to oversee adherence to industrial law, the ABCC conspicuously fails to investigate or prosecute employers underpaying workers or breaching safety regulations. Rather, it targets individual workers involved in union activity.

Under these unjust laws, even if a worker is killed on site, workers must be able to prove they had a reasonable concern about an imminent risk to themselves to legally stop work and assess the safety situation.

Passersby can also be interrogated by the ABCC for witnessing activities on a building site. The ABCC has the power to seek fines against individual workers of up to $22,000 and gag interviewees. Anyone who refuses to cooperate fully faces a potential 6 month jail term. More than 92 construction workers have been secretly interrogated by the ABCC.