Tunnel tragedy backlash: Union blasts ‘bargain-bin builder’ with poor safety record
Construction on the $7 billion Cross River Rail project has ground to a halt after workers downed to0ls following an accident on Tuesday which left a worker seriously injured.
Union members are seen protesting during a CFMEU rally . (AAP Image/Darren England)
The CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar said it was an inexcusable incident and would never have happened if there had been properly enforced safety protocols.
The union’s members rallied at Queens Park this morning and then marched through Brisbane’s CBD to protest against the accident in which a 54-year-old man fell more than 6 metres at the Dutton Park section of the construction site.
He is in a critical condition in hospital.
“We have been warning the State Government since the start of this project that safety standards were grossly inadequate and that a culture of fear and intimidation used by lead contractor CPB and some its … contractors leaves many workers too frightened to speak up on safety and other issues,” Ravbar said.
“This is a project for which the cheapest, bargain-bin builder was selected, despite CPB’s long history of safety failures, poor build quality, worker exploitation, project delays and massive cost over-runs,” he said.
“It is a project where legally authorised union officials are routinely denied entry to work sites to address concerns raised by members.”
“Minister Mark Bailey has now run out of excuses, and must stop blatantly lying about his ignorance of major safety issues. Despite Mr Bailey’s protestations to the contrary, officials from the CFMEU and other construction unions have directly raised serious safety and other issues with him and his senior staff on numerous occasions.”
He said the time for excuses and cheap PR stunts was and it was up to the Minister to fix the mess, or for Premier Palaszczuk to appoint a Minister who would.
Transport Minister Mark Bailey said he had visited the Boggo Rd site on Wednesday morning.
“There’s an investigation going on but this is not a situation that anybody wants to see,” he told ABC Radio.
“We’re hoping the worker is OK … He has very severe injuries, and so he will need a lot of care.
“There’ll be a safety reset with the whole workforce. All the scaffolding across the whole site. Every piece of scaffolding will be checked and we are obviously very concerned to see this.”
