A UNION has been fined $8000 and one of its delegates penalised $1100 over an illegal strike at the Lake Cowal gold mine nearly three years ago.

Justice Jagot of the Federal Court of Australia handed out the penalties to the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Robert Wakelin over a strike on November 10, 2005.

Each admitted to the court they had engaged in unlawful industrial action.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission took several other unions and their officials to court over the strike but stopped the action before the hearing.

The case revolved around a stop-work meeting at the mine site when it was under construction.

A manager for construction company John Holland, James Bryce, had authorised a 15-minute meeting of workers on November 10 to discuss a recommendation from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission about payment for meals during an earlier camp dispute.

When the meeting took more than the authorised 15 minutes, Mr Bryce and Roland Smits, another John Holland manager, interrupted the meeting and told employees to return to work.

Mr Wakelin is alleged to have said in response: �What are we going to do about this, men? Should we vote on this? Hands up who�s for the motion. Hands up who�s against the motion�.

The workers then voted to go on strike for the rest of the day in protest against Mr Bryce�s interruption of the meeting.