CFMEU sets precedent for FIFO action.

The CFMEU has had a historic High Court win for Fly in fly out workers concerned about taking industrial action.

Workers living in employer-provided housing can now make a decision to take strike action, unburdened from the threat of having their accommodation taken away.

Five High Court judges recently unanimously upheld a union appeal regarding FIFO workers who had their accommodation stripped away after going on strike.

The strike involved construction giant Mammoet who were working on Woodside's Pluto LNG project on the Burrup Peninsula, near Karratha in north-west WA. The union was attempting to bargain for a new enterprise agreement to supersede an existing greenfield agreement.

The construction site workers were FIFO workers, who typically worked for 28 days and then travelled home for seven days before returning on the next ‘swing’.

The High Court found that the provision of accommodation for these FIFO workers wasn't a payment in relation to the protected industrial action, and therefore the company wasn't prohibited from providing accommodation during that period.

In contrast, the Australian Mines and Minerals Association is dismayed by the decision. The AMMA chief executive Steve Knott described the ruling as ‘absurd’.

‘It appears that under these laws union bosses can now organise strikes and have their members effectively work on their suntans around the swimming pool, all the while the employer is not only haemorrhaging millions of dollars a day in lost production but is also obliged to keep them with catering and accommodation,' Knott says.