Work stopped for a day on a Melbourne rail project in June 2022 after the CFMEU demanded John Holland replace its labour hire firm and hire union-nominated staff, the Big Build royal commission heard. The Gap Road level crossing removal in Sunbury resumed on 7 June 2022 once the contractor accepted the union's terms, ABC News reported.
John Holland general superintendent Steve Testolin told the commission the CFMEU said at a meeting that aligning with the union would bring positive outcomes, including consideration as a preferred contractor on the $12 billion airport rail link. At that meeting the union demanded John Holland employ a union-nominated health and safety representative, replace its labour hire company with BK Labour Hire, and switch to CCL for traffic management.
Testolin said he and his colleagues knew before attending the CFMEU meeting that they were going there to agree to the union's demands. He told the commission he did not believe any valid safety concerns existed on the Gap Road site and suspected the union had a separate agenda, saying that requests to enter the site in April and May felt like intelligence-gathering.
During the week before the 6 June stoppage, CFMEU organisers raised safety concerns 31 times on the Gap Road site. Once John Holland accepted the union's demands, safety concern notices dropped from 12 per day to one, remaining at that level for the remainder of the project in 2022.
Aygur described to the commission the potential daily cost exposure during the 30-day rail occupation: delay penalties of $750,000 a day, rail replacement bus costs of around $500,000 a day, and extra labour costs of around $3 million a day. The project's forecast cost rose by an estimated $6 million. John Holland called WorkSafe and police for assistance on 6 June but neither responded immediately to attend the site.
An internal John Holland memo dated 2017 noted the CFMEU had what it described as unprecedented access to government ministers and other senior Victorian government stakeholders. The inquiry is treating the Gap Road level crossing removal as its lead case study and has received information from private hearings and requests covering more than 110,000 documents. The commission's public hearings run until 20 November, days before the Victorian state election on 28 November.
Construction companies working on Victorian government projects may face pressure to use union-affiliated labour hire and traffic management firms based on the conduct described at the commission. Companies operating during time-critical occupation periods on rail infrastructure can face daily cost exposures including delay penalties, bus replacement costs and extra labour costs, making them particularly vulnerable to work stoppages during those windows.
Reporting: ABC News, The Guardian, The Nightly
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
