FED:Union attacks govt over BER payments

AAP General News (Australia)
08-29-2011
FED:Union attacks govt over BER payments

SYDNEY, Aug 29 AAP - One of Labor's biggest union allies has attacked the federal government
for not helping in the bailout of hundreds of family businesses owed more than $7 million
from collapsed Building the Education Revolution (BER) projects.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is campaigning through a
website to pressure the government and BER head contractor Bovis Lend Lease to help businesses
and subcontractors recover money owed, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The CFMEU has more than 100,000 members nationwide. It says the Gillard government
has refused to press Bovis Lend Lease to help victims who lost their life savings when
builders went broke while working on BER projects.

More than 500 businesses across NSW were left out of pocket, including roofers, plumbers,
concreters, fabricators and carpenters, the newspaper said.

A spokesman for Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans told the paper the government
sympathised with subcontractors of builder Project Kendall but it was "the state and territory
governments and non-government education authorities who are responsible for managing
the implementation of BER projects in their schools including tendering, contracting and
procurement".

AAP rs/jel

KEYWORD: BER

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