Hands off Bob - defend the right to organise!
Channel: Workers BushTelegraph
Date: 13/02/2013

12 February 2013 appearance at court by 150 workers in solidarity with Bob Carnegie.

Supporters of community at activist Bob Carnegie came out in force the past three days, making a commotion outside the Federal Magistrates Court in Brisbane.

Judgment awaits Mr Carnegie, with Federal Magistrate Burnett adjourning the case until April.

Mr Carnegie is being charged with breaching a court order made by construction company AbiGroup on September 5 2012 which purportedly prohibited him from coming within 100m of a construction site.

But Mr Carnegie's counsel, Peter Morrissey argues the original order failed to specify the proper geographical location of the site from which Bob was supposedly banned.

The site in question is Queensland Children's Hospital construction site.

Mr Morrissey argues the ex parte injunction brought against Mr Carnegie did not specify the site, but merely listed a QCH project.

He argues the order was "fatally ambiguous" in its wording, posing the question of whether it was coherent and whether a breach occurred at all.

The court heard there are several projects connected to the Queensland Children's Hospital project including an Academic Research Facility that, at the time of supposed breach, AbiGroup had not yet won the contract to build.

Counsel for AbiGroup James Murdoch played video footage allegedly showing Mr Carnegie contravening the order.

Other charges levelled against Mr Carnegie include 5 counts of organising workers on a picket line, 3 charges of using abusive language and 1 charge of threatening an employee.

Peter Morrissey sought to poke holes in the charges of abusive language and threatening an employee, questioning QCH Senior Project Manager Brian Gildea and AbiGroup Northern Operations Manager Timothy McCan about video footage showing Mr Carnegie in an altercation with John Savva, a man who had supposedly shown up on September 27 to work on site.

Mr Savva is shown repeatedly shouting at Mr Carnegie "You're a fuck! You're a fuck!" and asking him how much he was earning each week in organising the strike. Bob Carnegie is shown yelling at Mr Savva and then walking out of frame, later reappearing and coaxing other workers away from the scene.

Mr Morrissey described Mr Savva as having acted in a "provocative and aggressive" manner.

Both Mr Gildea and Mr McCan could not recall whether Mr Savva was a paid employee on the site. Mr Gildea suggested he may have been employed through a labour hire company. Only Mr McCan said that John Savva had done work that day.

Both witnesses testified they had not met Mr Savva before or after the event occurred. Again only Timothy McCan said he had witnessed the whole event. Brian Gildea said he had not seen Mr Savva using abusive language and would have acted differently if he had known. Mr McCan said he didn't seek to intervene because his "voice wasn't going to do anything" in the situation.

Mr McCan confirmed no disciplinary action was taken against John Savva for the incident.

The charges of organising workers on a picket line weren't contested by Mr Carnegie's counsel.

Steve Riggall
News Room
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