Williamson sentence fails to satisfy union

Moments after Michael Williamson was sentenced for defrauding the Health Services Union of almost $1 million, members still had questions.

Former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson

The HSU has welcomed the five-year sentencing of their former boss Michael Williamson. (AAP)

For some Health Services Union members, Michael Williamson's five-year sentence will never be enough.

Not only did the former boss oversee a "parasitic plundering" of the HSU's coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle, for people like union member Doris Borg, there is the added sting of the bloated pay packets he awarded himself and others when he was general secretary from 1995 until 2012.

If she had the chance, Ms Borg said she would tell Williamson: "You're a thief. You've just taken advantage of low paid workers".

While Williamson paid himself more than $513,000 and then rorted almost $1 million of union members' money, the hospital cleaners and aged workers he was supposed to serve were earning around $40,000 a year.

Williamson wasn't the only man at the top of the HSU stealing from thousands of lowly paid healthcare workers.

Former national secretary Craig Thompson was sentenced on Wednesday to at least three months jail for spending union funds on prostitutes and personal expenses.

On Friday, Williamson was jailed for at least five years for systematically "leeching" the union of almost $1 million and recruiting others to hinder a police investigation.

In sentencing Williamson, Judge Frearson painted a damning picture of a man motivated by greed.

The image of the union was also bleak.

Wielding "some kind of supreme power", Williamson hired and fired staff and wrested control of the union's finances and wages.

Those loyal to him were dubbed "Michael Williamson's team" and were handsomely rewarded.

Those who didn't tow the line were invariably shut up or pushed out, long-time member Julia Batty told AAP after the sentencing.

"No-one questioned him, no-one challenged him. They are still there," Katrina Hart told AAP.

Ms Hart said members were "never ever" told about executive pay packets, adding that her efforts in the past to access finances were stonewalled.

In 2013, the HSU finalised its civil claim against Williamson, eliminating more than $600,000 in claimed leave entitlements and clawing back superannuation liabilities of about $1.1 million.

Since Williamson declared bankruptcy, prosecutor Emily Winborne says the union has no avenue for restitution and is now "$5 million worse off".

HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes says the union will continue to pursue the money and a public examination will quiz Williamson's family about their finances under oath.

But whistleblower Kathy Jackson says something is still rotten.

"We still have an organisation that is riddled with power corruption and hopefully the royal commission will deal with that," she said.

The HSU is specifically named in the terms of reference for the inquiry into union corruption which starts next month.


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Source: AAP


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