The CFMEU administrator is fighting an estimated $5 million lawsuit by an organiser who was allegedly bashed on a building site while doing a safety inspection, leaving him with just one working eye and unable to work for the rest of his life.

The lawsuit looms as John Setka, who at the time led the CFMEU branch of which the organiser was a member, reportedly pursues a workers’ compensation claim against the union for post-traumatic stress disorder that he says he developed while branch secretary.