Landmark victory for union rights in Australia‏

A UNISONActive reader in Sydney, Australia reports on yesterday's landmark legal ruling: A major victory for building and construction workers around Australia, construction union member Ark Tribe has been found not guilty by an Adelaide Court. http://www.cfmeu.asn.au/news/ark-tribe-found-not-guilty

His alleged crime was that he had failed to attend a compulsory interview and interrogation by the Australian Government's Building and Construction Commission. Under legislation which still remains in force, despite the now re elected Labor Government, building and construction workers can be compelled, under threat of imprisonment, to attend secret interviews with the Building and Construction Commission where they are denied the right to silence.

Anyone who chooses to exercise the denied right to silence, or refuses to attend an interview, can face imprisonment of up to six months.

Adelaide Magistrate David Whittle this morning said it was "appropriate for the court to require those vested with the power and responsibility to infringe in this way upon the normal rights of citizens to comply strictly with their legislative obligations".

He went on to find, in acquitting Ark, that the Building Commission and its then head had failed to even come to the conclusion that Ark had information relevant to the conclusion.

Despite the victory for Ark, employees in the construction sector continue to face imprisonment for exercising their right to silence in the face of the coercive powers of the Building Commission. Ark has been faced with a nervous 18 months whilst his Union defended what we all hold as basic rights in the face of a vindictive Government agency.

Dave Noonen, from the Construction Union said: "We have been fighting this for 18 months, and this is terrific news for Ark and his family. It proves what a shambles the ABCC is. A worker has been dragged through hell for what? The Government must now recognise the Australian Building and Construction Commission to be a shambles and move to abolish it once and for all.”

Unionists in London had previously supported the case of Ark by staging protests outside Australia House in London.