This Guy was appointed to the Fair Work Commission By Julia Gillard and is still there .
The Fair Work commission is where the unions want there cases heard.
No ABC journo will ever ask Bill Shorten about this.
UNION heavyweight Bernie Riordan is being sued by his own members over $1.8 million in fees he allegedly pocketed while serving on four boards connected with their superannuation funds.
The unprecedented legal action against one of the nation's most powerful union bosses follows reports in The Sunday Telegraph about claims the former NSW ALP president was almost trebling his income by sitting on company boards.
As the head of the Electrical Trades Union, Mr Riordan receives an annual salary of $133,000 plus super but he has allegedly supplemented that with as much as $264,625 a year in board sitting fees.
Mr Riordan was deposed as president of the NSW Labor Party last year after The Sunday Telegraph revealed he had rallied his members against then premier Kristina Keneally, urging them to back the NSW Coalition and the Greens in the March election.
But he is still regarded as one of the most influential union figures in the NSW Labor Party.
In a statement of claim lodged with the Federal Court last week, it is alleged Mr Riordan has received $1,807,884 in fees since 1998 from sitting on the boards of the Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme, Futureplus Financial Services, Chifley Financial Services Limited and Mert Limited.
The claim states that under the ETU's rules, any sitting fees "received by officials must be reimbursed to the union" for the benefit of all members.
Two other ETU officials, Neville Betts and Paul Sinclair, are also part of the action which seeks to recover a combined total of $3.4 million in board fees dating back to 1998.
Mr Betts has taken home $595,374 since 1998, while from sitting on the board of state-owned electricity company, Transgrid, and the ACT Building and Construction Industry Training Fund Authority. The writ also claims Mr Sinclair has kept $991,839 from sitting on the board of the electrical industry super scheme and Integral Energy.
While Mr Riordan declined to comment, a NSW ETU spokesman said the legal action was "an ugly stunt" by Victorian ETU boss Dean Mighell and his branch of the union, which was trying to take over the NSW branch at the forthcoming election.
He said the claims were "a cynical ploy" and "completely wrong", and would be vigorously defended.
While Mr Sinclair also declined to comment on the lawsuit, Mr Betts said the allegations were "incorrect".
Mr Mighell rejected claims it was a stunt.
"I absolutely reject that. This legal action isn't something I want to do, but it's something I have no choice to do, because of the lack of transparency," he said. "That money is union money, it belongs to our members."
