When Workers Cross the Line: The Oracle Case, the CFMEU, and the Poisoning of Workplace Justice

Australia’s workplace relations system is meant to resolve disputes through evidence, negotiation, and impartial decision-making. At its heart sits the Fair Work Commission (FWC), a tribunal that thousands of workers and employers rely on every year. But what happens when participants reject reasoned outcomes and instead embrace threats, intimidation, and outright violence?

Two very different but connected stories reveal the danger: the shocking case of an Oracle data technician who threatened to torch the Commission itself, and the disgraceful pattern of lawlessness uncovered within the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU). Together they show how intimidation not only discredits individual grievances but corrodes faith in the institutions designed to uphold workplace justice.

When Workers Cross the Line: The Oracle Case, the CFMEU, and the Poisoning of Workplace Justice

The Oracle Worker: From Frustration to Fury

In Application by Sajjad Nasir [2025] FWC 2470 (21 August 2025), the Commission and later the High Court dealt with a dismissed Oracle employee whose behaviour escalated beyond the bounds of law.

• The dismissal: His employment ended in November 2022.

• The first claim: A general protections application was lodged in March 2023 but abandoned after conciliation failed.

• Further attempts: He tried again, filing multiple applications, but they were either late, incomplete, or struck out.

• Appeals dismissed: Both the Commission’s Full Bench and the High Court rejected his appeals.

• Suppression bid: Frustrated, he sought to have decisions removed from the public record and his identity suppressed. The Commission rejected this too.

Rather than accept the rulings, the worker made a chilling threat: he would burn down the Commission building with the presiding member still inside.

A provisional apprehended violence order (AVO) was issued to protect the member. The High Court later dismissed the worker’s challenges as an “abuse of process”, making it clear that threats of violence are no substitute for legal argument.

Violence as a Tactic: Not Just One Case

While this Oracle case stands out for its extremity, the tactic of threats and intimidation is sadly not unique. Recent investigations into the CFMEU’s operations across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland paint a disturbing picture:

• A cycle of lawlessness: Violence was described as “an accepted part of the culture” where intimidation replaced negotiation.

• Ties to organised crime: Outlaw motorcycle gangs and underworld figures were found to have infiltrated union delegate ranks, leveraging fear to control outcomes.

• Targeting opponents: In Queensland, union officials threatened not just rival unions and contractors, but women and children, with one case involving an official barking at a female safety officer and calling her a “c--- dog”.

• Abuse of process: The CFMEU has racked up more than 2,600 convictions and $28 million in fines over two decades, with judges noting fines were treated as a mere cost of doing business.

The parallel with the Oracle worker is stark. When people use violence or threats instead of arguments and evidence, they are not engaging with the system—they are undermining it.

The Broader Danger: Poisoning Workplace Justice

What connects the Oracle case and the CFMEU investigations is not just the misconduct itself, but the damage it causes to everyone else.

• Eroding safety: Commission members, court staff, inspectors, and rival unionists have faced abuse and even death threats. No one should fear for their lives simply for carrying out their duties.

• Wasting resources: Repeated, baseless claims—whether from one disgruntled worker or a powerful union—drain the system, delaying justice for others with genuine disputes.

• Destroying credibility: The Oracle worker’s threats destroyed any sympathy for his dismissal. Similarly, the CFMEU’s thuggery has damaged not just its own standing but the credibility of the union movement as a whole.

  
  

The Line That Cannot Be Crossed

The Fair Work Commission, like all institutions, is imperfect. Workers often feel it favours large employers, and reforms are always debated. But none of that justifies crossing the line into threats or violence.

President Adam Hatcher was right to stress that suppression orders are not a remedy for dissatisfaction. Likewise, the CFMEU administrator has emphasised that intimidation weakens the union and betrays the very workers it claims to represent.

If open justice and fair process are abandoned, workplace disputes risk being settled not by evidence and law, but by who shouts loudest—or who threatens hardest. That is not a system of justice. That is anarchy.

Conclusion: Respecting the System, Demanding Better

The Oracle case and the CFMEU scandals serve as blunt reminders. Workers and unions must respect the rule of law, even when outcomes are disappointing. Anger, threats, and violence are not tools of advocacy—they are weapons of destruction.

The challenge for Australia’s workplace relations future is twofold:

1. Reform the system to make it more accessible, transparent, and fair, so workers do not feel forced into hopeless battles.

2. Draw the line firmly against intimidation, ensuring that violence never has a seat at the bargaining table

   
   

Only then can the Commission, unions, and employers work together in a way that genuinely protects rights without poisoning the process.