The CFMEU is investigating how a builder with a shoddy safety record and poor social procurement practices has won a tender for a multi-million-dollar State Government social housing project.
Disgraced builder, Ironside, has a deplorable record of unsafe work practices and has shown no interest in working with the CFMEU to improve its OH&S and labour standards.
Secretary of the CFMEU Vic-Tas Branch, John Setka, said: “Victorians expect the Government to spend their hard-earned tax dollars on builders who provide good quality, safe jobs, where workers are treated with dignity and respect.
“This mob are anti-union and anti-worker. They’ve refused to come to the table and talk to us about making work safe, and they refuse to budge on paying workers decent, liveable wages.
“It’s disappointing that the government is spending millions in taxpayer dollars to prop up shoddy builders like Ironside instead of reputable companies who are on the bones of their arse and on the brink of collapse.
“We’re looking into how Ironside managed to dodge the State Government’s Fair Jobs Code, which was designed to provide the checks and balances needed to stop dodgy builders from getting their hands on important community projects like this one.
“It’s a bit bloody ironic that the State Government would even consider giving work to a mob that has absolutely no ethics, to build social housing.”
The CFMEU strongly condemns the State Government’s decision to award this building contract to Ironside.
The CFMEU is calling on the State Government to retract any deals struck with Ironside to protect the safety and welfare of Victorian workers and our community.