Former CFMEU boss John Setka launches PTSD workers comp claim

Paid out more than $400,000 already, the ex-CFMEU boss is citing a series of incidents to explain the cause of his alleged PTSD injury.

John Setka addressing protesters outside the CFMEU’s Melbourne headquarters in 2021. Picture: David Crosling

Former Victorian CFMEU boss John Setka has launched a workers compensation claim alleging he is suffering post traumatic stress disorder from a deterioration in his mental health while running the militant construction union.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the claim confirmed to The Australian that Mr Setka had lodged the claim and cited a series of incidents, including death threats, to explain the cause of his alleged injury.

Sources said the incidents cited by Mr Setka included the violent protests outside the CFMEU Victorian headquarters during the Covid pandemic in 2021 and the collapse of a Swanston Street wall in Melbourne’s CBD in 2013 that killed three passing pedestrians.

Mr Setka was one of the first people at the scene of the collapse and gave support to the victims.

Sources said Mr Setka also cited 2015 blackmail charges against him and his former deputy Shaun Reardon, which were subsequently dropped in 2018.

It is understood Mr Setka cited death threats and abuse he endured in the 12 years he led the Victorian branch before he resigned in July this year following a series of damaging allegations against him and the union.

Sources said Mr Setka justified making the late claim because he was concerned that making an earlier claim would have undermined his authority and reputation running the union, and would have potentially undermined his personal safety, given the death threats.

Mr Setka did not respond to requests for comment on the claim when approached by The Australian.

Sources sad Mr Setka, who spent decades working for the union, was paid out more than $400,000 in entitlements following his resignation. If his claim is accepted, he could be entitled to weekly payments and coverage of medical expenses.

Following Mr Setka’s resignation and publication of allegations that the union had been infiltrated by organised crime figures and outlaw bikies, the ­Albanese government put the union’s construction division into administration.

Mr Setka later claimed the government made a deal to not put the union into administration if he resigned, an allegation denied by Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt.

Mr Setka served as the union’s Victorian secretary for 12 years and was an official for almost 40 years. In a post on social media earlier on Wednesday, Mr Setka said he had set up a new ­social media page “to tell my story, the truth and not the lies and misinformation some sections of the media would have you believe”.

“Firstly, just for the record, my sudden resignation as state secretary of the Victorian branch was done to protect the union from administration, not because I had done anything wrong but to keep the union out of the govt (government) hands,” he wrote.

Mr Setka wrote that he would be “posting truthful comments on what (former workplace relations minister) Tony Burke and the Albanese government did to us all with the help of the ACTU and their role in trying to destroy this proud union”.

“It will be controversial and confronting to people and it will be very embarrassing to people who I will name and shame for the roles they have played; it unfortunately for them will be the truth,” he said.

CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith last month accused Mr Burke of breaching a personal undertaking to give the union a chance to address alle­gations of criminality before ­forcing the construction division into administration.

Mr Smith said he spoke to Mr Burke on July 13, the day after Mr Setka quit, and he believed the then workplace relations minister had committed to giving the union an opportunity to internally address the issues without the need for an external ­administration.

“I think his exact words were, you have got a chance to address these issues,” Mr Smith alleged Mr Burke said during their Saturday conversation. “That undertaking wasn’t honoured. We weren’t given a chance.

“I think history will show that, and we should have been given a chance. As a democratic organisation, we should have been given that chance.”

Days after the conversation, Mr Burke announced that CFMEU construction division branches in five states would be placed under the control of an external administrator.

A spokesman for Mr Burke declined to comment at the time Mr Smith made his claims last month.

In an interview on the ABC’s Insiders on July 14, Mr Burke said he had sought advice from his department the previous day – the same day as his conversation with Mr Smith – about his powers to deal with the CFMEU in the face of the criminality revealed inside the union.

“As that advice comes in, I’m effectively going to be looking at three things: the advice on the extent of my powers, the allegations as they’re revealed, and ­finally the extent to which the union itself acts immediately and effectively. If they don’t, I will,” he said.