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April 9th, 2013 
UNION members are picketing Nepean Hospital in Sydney’s west, urging the NSW government to protect subcontractors and workers left out of pocket and jobless after another building company collapse.
NSW-based construction firm National Buildplan announced on Monday it had gone into voluntary administration, citing a failure to successfully restructure and secure additional funding.
The company owes tens of millions of dollars.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) says one subcontractor is owed almost half a million dollars at Nepean.
It says around 80 subcontractors could be affected by the collapse, along with hundreds of workers.
On Tuesday workers picketed at the hospital project, accusing the NSW government of failing to implement recommendations to protect subcontractors and workers hit by building company collapses.
CFMEU state secretary Brian Parker said up to 100 workers were expected to join the protest.
He said the Collins inquiry into building company collapses made 44 recommendations in January, including the establishment of a trust to ensure subcontractors got paid first in the event of a company going under.
Bruce Collins QC led the three-month probe after a string of high-profile construction firms collapsed and left suppliers and subcontractors out of pocket to the tune of $1 billion.
“The government has to take up those recommendations and it’s obvious to me they’ve sat on their hands on this issue,” Mr Parker told AAP.
While the government was handing out contracts for hospital and other big building projects, it was also trying to curb unions from assisting people after building company collapses, he said.
“The government wants to restrict the only organisation that’s assisting these contractors in trying to recover their money, being the union.”
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