Minister’s office said contractor should handle CFMEU or lose work in Victoria, Big Build inquiry hears

A major contractor on a troubled Victorian rail project shut down by union officials was warned that the minister’s office felt it would not “have any more work” in the state if it did not resolve the industrial dispute, a royal commission has heard.

The royal commission into the integrity of major public and civil infrastructure construction projects in Victoria heard from a Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (Vida) official for the first time on Friday.

Vida was strongly criticised by counsel assisting the commission, Chris Young KC, on Thursday for its failure to disclose relevant evidence in a timely manner to the investigation.

The commission’s November public hearings, which are set to run until 20 November, are focusing on a 2022 level crossing removal project at Gap Road in Sunbury.

The commission previously heard that Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) officials shut down the site because of purported safety concerns, only for them to allow it to continue after two of their own health and safety representatives were appointed, and the project changed its traffic and labour hire companies to CFMEU-aligned firms.

Peter Wilkinson, a former Vida official who is now the executive general manager of the Suburban Rail Loop authority and a civil engineer, said that at the height of an industrial dispute at Gap Road he spoke about the need for work to resume on the project with Evan Tattersall, his manager at Vida.

He said Tattersall told him on either 6 or 7 June 2022 that he had discussed the issue with the minister’s office, and Wilkinson assumed that meant the office of the then-minister for transport infrastructure, Jacinta Allan.

Tattersall told him, Wilkinson said, “that if they can’t handle the industrial [relations] in Victoria, they can’t have any more work”.

Tattersall was referring to the contractors on the site, John Holland and CPB Constructions, Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson said he was aware at the time that the contractors were tendering for the airport rail, another major state government funded infrastructure project, but that he did not know if the minister’s office also knew this.

Wilkinson said Tattersall did not tell him what he should do with the information from the minister’s office, but he passed it on to Joe Aygur, the general manager of the Rail Network Alliance involved in the project’s delivery.

Aygur told the commission about the warning on Tuesday.

When asked by Young why no record of his conversation with Tattersall existed, Wilkinson said “probably one reason is that it was moving very quickly, so it was conversation that we had to keep it moving, rather than there being a need to formally record it.”

The commission also heard on Friday from Stephen Villella, who worked for CPD Constructions and was the delivery director at the site, about the meeting at the union headquarters that ultimately ended the dispute.

He said it had been “extremely galling” for construction company officials to have to “bend the knee” by meeting with the CFMEU to resolve the matter.

Villella said none of the safety concerns raised by the union were serious enough to force work to stop at the site.

Workers on the project were fearful of the CMFEU and would stay in the lunchroom for long periods once they started to attend.

“They didn’t want to come [to work] at all,” Villella said.

“They were fearful of what would happen to them organisationally and individually if they did.”

Villella said he disagreed with evidence given early in the week by a former CMFEU organiser Paul Tzimas about those on site choosing not to work, saying they were heavily pressured by union officials.

Villella said that in the meeting with the CFMEU, a union organiser Joe Myles suggested collaborating would assist in winning future tenders such as the Melbourne airport rail project.

He said Myles also suggested he had direct lines to Allan’s office.

Villella said he was not surprised by Myles’ claim about having communication to the ministers office, as he had seen what had happened to the industry over the past 10 years.

Villella said Myles left abruptly in the first half of the about 30 minute meeting, which he said felt like a snub.

But he rejected a suggestion by counsel for Myles that it was not the union official, but rather Tzimas, who raised the list of union demands for the Gap Road project.

After construction managers agreed to the demands, work on the site resumed as normal.

“Amazingly, all our safety issues ceased,” Villella said.

The hearing before commissioner Christopher Kourakis continues.