Record fines for illegal strike at Woodside's LNG project THE Federal Court yesterday imposed record fines on workers who engaged in an unlawful strike at a West Australian gas project five years ago. Federal Court judge John Gilmour yesterday found 117 CBI Construction employees who walked off the job for up to eight days each in 2008 had done so illegally, fining them a combined $1,068,000. Justice Gilmour levelled penalties of $10,000 on 24 of the strikers at the Woodside LNG Expansion Project on the Burrup Peninsula, near Karratha, believed to be the biggest individual fines against striking workers in Australian history. He said the strike had caused significant project delays and economic losses for the $8 billion Pluto project. Master Builders Association spokesman Kim Richardson said the legal action had been taken under the former Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act, abolished by the Gillard government in March last year. "For that reason, we support the restoration of the (office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner) by the Abbott government," Mr Richardson said. The conduct of these employees was wilful and deliberate in defying an Australian Industrial Relations Commission return-to-work order. Employees had the ability to exercise a dispute through the settlement procedure without the need to take unlawful industrial action. It comes down to accountability. Mr Richardson said there was evidence that even the relevant unions had recommended their members return to work. The Federal Court ordered a total of $680,125 of the penalties be paid within 60 days. The remaining $387,875 will be suspended, and payable only if the workers break the industrial law within the next three years. As well as the 24 workers fined $10,000 a head, a further 61 were hit with fines of $5000, with an additional $5000 suspended for three years. Thirty-two workers who went on strike for between one and seven days were fined between $1000 and $8750. The strike took place after workers claimed they were entitled to a redundancy payment and re-employment during the next phase of the project under their union collective agreement. On the first day of the strike, the AIRC issued the workers wtih a return-to-work order. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's WA branch declined to comment.