'Ineffective' HSU now in administration

21 Jun 2012, 6:18 pm   -   Source: AAP

Kathy Jackson says HSU members should decide on a demerger, not the court, after a ruling placed the union into administration.

More than nine months after HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson referred corruption claims to police, the troubled union has been placed into administration.

Justice Geoffrey Flick declared on Thursday that both the state union, HSUeast, and the East Branch of the federal HSU had ceased to function effectively.

He ordered that former Federal Court judge Michael Moore be appointed administrator of both organisations, that all their office holders lose their positions and the branch be demerged to become separate NSW and Victorian-based unions.

Speaking outside the Federal Court, Ms Jackson said she would seek legal advice about appealing, saying it should be left to members to decide if there should be a demerger.

"I want to remind our members that the amalgamation of the union did not cause the corruption in the HSU East and I was quite surprised by the judge's decision," she said.

In a statement, she said the decision did nothing to root out corruption in HSU East.

"I'll be continuing my efforts in the coming weeks to continue to expose corruption and to ensure that stooges of corrupt officials don't get elected using funds stolen from the members themselves," Ms Jackson said.

Outside court, HSU acting national president Chris Brown said the union was very pleased with the outcome.

"The dysfunctionality of the East Branch was causing enormous problems for the union," he said.

"Now that the branch has been put into administration what it will enable is for the warring factions to no longer continue their fight within the union itself.

"It means that after a period of time, that includes the breaking up of the branch, members will have an opportunity to decide for themselves who they want to run the union.

"It's about putting the future of the HSU branch back into the hands of its membership."

Before handing down his decision, Justice Flick rejected a last-minute bid by Ms Jackson's barrister to reopen the case.

In his judgment, he concluded that Ms Jackson "can make no legitimate claims to have suffered any sense of injustice".

He also rejected a claim that she would suffer "substantial injustice" from losing her position as executive president of the state union, which has a $270,000 salary.

She will still retain her national secretary position which has a $150,000 salary.

The judge set out an agreed statement of facts about the dysfunction in both organisations, including disrupted meetings, increasing resignations and the inability to effectively investigate complaints and claims of misconduct about officers.

The organisations also failed to put controls and procedures in place to ensure "accountability and proper governance" in relation to the expenditure of members' funds.

The judge said the administrator would have the power to bring proceedings for the recovery of any funds, misappropriated by any person, and for the imposition of penalties and the awarding of compensation.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube