CFMEU fined over Melbourne demo site fight

The CFMEU has copped another fine, this time for trying to force a Melbourne demolition company into signing a pay agreement in 2013.

The Australian Building and Construction Commissioner launched legal action in 2014 against the peak construction union over the redevelopment of Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre at Carlton.

The Federal Court on Friday handed the union $72,000 in fines.

CFMEU official Theo Theodorou was also hit with $9000 in penalties.

The action was also raised against building company Harris HMC interiors and several of its employees.

The commissioner argued the CFMEU, Theodorou, Harris Interiors and its staff contravened the Fair Work Act by attempting to coerce and discriminate a demolition subcontractor into signing an enterprise bargaining agreement with the union because it was "working in the city".

The court found the defendants had breached the Fair Work Act and had threatened to take industrial action to make the contractor sign an agreement.

Harris Interiors was fined a total of $23,400 in penalties and its employees were fined less than $2000 each.

The union has incurred penalties totalling more than $15 million in recent years.