Restaurant picket reaches 200th day

Building workers, subcontractors and their families, recently 
entered the 200th day of a picket of the Safari Restaurant in the 
inner Sydney suburb of Newtown.

The restaurant's owner, James Nazmi, employed building contractor 
PACI Pty Ltd, whose owner fled to South Korea two years ago, 
owing some $1.5 million in unpaid debts. He is said to have had a 
close working relationship with Nazmi. Several companies which 
Nazmi has either managed, or with which he has had dealings, have 
also crashed in the last few years.

PACI's creditors included the subcontractors and tradesmen who 
had worked on the Safari project. Although Nazmi has derived the 
benefit of their labours, in the form of work carried out to 
date, he has so far refused to pay them any money, as he 
maintains that this was PACI's responsibility.

In retaliation, the Safari workers and contractors decided to 
mount a picket on the restaurant, and they've been there ever 
since. The 200-day anniversary was marked with a special 
celebration (outside the restaurant, of course), which was 
attended by Labor MPs Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese, as 
well as representatives of the Green Party and the Construction, 
Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

The CFMEU's NSW Secretary Andrew Ferguson, stated: "We are 
determined to keep up this picket until Mr Nazmi takes 
responsibility for the shonky builder he employed and pays these 
workers what they are owed. [His] actions are nothing short of 
disgraceful, and his continual refusal to pay these small 
business people the $1.5 million owed from the site is 
unacceptable.

"This isn't about a few dollars owed to a big company. This non-
payment has left many small businesses in serious financial 
trouble. The CFMEU will not tolerate these bully-boy tactics from 
developers and we'll continue to fight alongside these workers 
until they're paid every cent they're owed."