Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. A booming scaffolding firm that has secured significant contracts on the $550 million redevelopment of the nation’s war memorial, a major hospital, Sydney Metro and a public school has been repeatedly promoted by the CFMEU, despite a catastrophic safety record and alleged links to a bikie boss and other underworld figures. Synergy Scaffolding Services and its related entities have not only secured union backing for multiple enterprise bargaining agreements but, according to union and industry sources, been repeatedly informally pushed by sacked NSW CFMEU boss Darren Greenfield onto work sites around the state.
The allegations follow the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review , and 60 Minutes which has plunged Australia’s largest construction union into administration over alleged links to organised crime, corruption and standover tactics. Five industry insiders, including four who have served as building union delegates or organisers but who asked to remain anonymous citing fears of repercussions, slammed the CFMEU’s continuing promotion of Synergy despite the firm being fined millions of dollars after two judges found it responsible for exposing workers to avoidable fatal and near-fatal injuries. Christopher Cassaniti (centre) celebrates his 18th birthday with family.
The parents of one young worker killed on a Synergy site in 2019 labelled the union’s promotion of t.