John Setka told to hand phone and text messages over by Supreme Court

Union boss John Setka will have to give up personal information as the multimillion legal case he is involved in intensifies.

Militant union boss John Setka has been ordered to hand over his telephone and text message records as part of a multimillion legal claim.

The builders of Pentridge Village have blamed Mr Setka’s construction union for the collapse of its project at the former Coburg prison site in inner city Melbourne.

The prison, which was where Ronald Ryan was hanged and Mark “Chopper” Read served his time, was being turned into a housing and business estate when it was claimed the union forced its way on site.

Leigh Chiavaroli and his late father Peter formed the company Pentridge Village from their small company West Homes.

Mr Chiavaroli has been fighting with the union in the Victorian Supreme Court, demanding a multi million pay out for losses on the project.

CFMEU leader John Setka. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

The company has claimed that Mr Setka forced union shop stewards on site, trying to push the company to sign higher union pay deals on the project that was planned to include a hospital and office towers.

Judge Mary-Jane Ierodiaconou ordered this month that Mr Setka hand over details of “records of telephone calls made, or SMS messages sent” to several union officials and members.

“By 4.00pm on 10 February 2023 … the defendants shall serve a list of discoverable documents in accordance with the list of categories of documents at Annexure B to these orders,” the Supreme Court documents stated.

The list of documents included records of Mr Setka’s telephone calls and text messages with Anton Sucic and Ivan Dadic, who were on site for the CFMEU, along with Ken Hardy and concreter Mario Amenta.

Leigh Chiavaroli. Picture: Jason Edwards

Former CFMEU boss Bill Oliver and Shaun Reardon were also ordered to hand over phone records, along with Gerald Benstead, as he was referred to in the court documents.

The order added documents should also include: “In the case of Setka, Benstead, Oliver and Reardon from any landline number on the telephone account or plan of the CFMEU which they used for the purposes of their activities as officers of the CFMEU in the relevant

period concerned.”

Mr Chiavaroli was ordered to hand over reams of documents, including whether any employees were covered by union agreements, working day calendars and any time extension claims.

The project was delayed following the onsite death of worker Thomas Kelly, a father of two, in 2009, which the union claimed was why they had wanted to take over the site.

The Pentridge Village dispute was widely canvassed in the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption in 2014.

The commission heard that Mr Setka had told Mr Chiavaroli in a phone call that he would bury the head of a concreter “next to Ned Kelly’s”.

“I hate the c---, I’m going to come down there, rip his head off, s--- down his throat, and bury his head next to Ned Kelly’s,” the commission heard Mr Setka allegedly say.

The Supreme Court case was first filed in 2016, with hearings expected to continue next year.

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