John Setka shirtfronts AFL over umpire boss Stephen McBurney

The AFL has backed its head of umpiring Stephen McBurney after the CFMEU leader demanded his sacking, with employers accusing the union of holding the code to ransom.

Victorian CFMEU leader John Setka and AFL umpire boss Stephen McBurney.

The AFL has strongly backed its head of umpiring Stephen McBurney after Victorian CFMEU leader John Setka demanded his sacking, with employers accusing the construction union of trying to hold the league to ransom.

Business groups said they were appalled by Mr Setka threatening to wage a “work to rule” campaign against the AFL on any league-related projects, including the proposed Tasmanian stadium, unless the league sacked Mr McBurney as its head of umpiring.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Mr Setka of trying to stand over the AFL, and challenged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to condemn the union leader’s conduct.

Mr Setka said the union would not cooperate with the AFL to address any delays or cost overruns on league-related projects until Mr McBurney, who as Australian Building and Construction Commissioner initiated legal action that resulted in millions of dollars of penalties against the Construction Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, was sacked as the AFL umpires boss.

In a statement on Wednesday, the AFL said it hoped any action by the CFMEU did not impact players, supporters or the wider community who benefited from upgrades to local clubrooms and our stadiums.

“Steve McBurney umpired 401 games, including four AFL grand finals, has been a long-time mentor to umpires at every level and has done an outstanding job since returning to the AFL to take up the role of Head of Officiating,” the AFL said.

Mr Setka stood by his threats on Wednesday, claiming Mr McBurney should not be able to work anywhere in Australia given his record at the ABCC and “should go to North Korea”.

“He’d be right at home in North Korea with all the dictator laws and all that,” he said.

Asked to respond to the AFL backing Mr McBurney, Mr Setka he told Melbourne radio 3AW: “Let them stick by him so when it’s cost them a fortune, don’t come crying to us.”

Mr Setka earlier told The Australian that the union had an “obligation to pursue anti-union, anti-worker f. kers like (Mr McBurney) and we will until the end of the earth”.

“This is going to cost the AFL a lot of f. king money. I hope it’s worth it. Projects without our full cooperation are going to be a f. king misery for them,” he said. “They will regret the day they ever employed him.”

On the Victorian CFMEU’s Facebook page, the union posted a mock reward poster featuring Mr McBurney and the words: “(Not) Wanted Dead or Alive.”

Stephen McBurney during his days as an on-field umpire.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said on Wednesday that Mr Setka’s threats represented “union thuggery at its worst”.

“It was stomach churning to read of his personal threats against Stephen McBurney whose difficult job it was to oversight a sector where unions are known for a culture of fear, reprisal, lawlessness and intimidation,” Mr Willox told The Australian.

“The ABCC played an important role in seeking to clean up the notorious and unlawful union behaviour in the construction industry. It is reprehensible for the CFMEU leadership to target an individual who was doing a difficult job that he was appointed to by the government and to seek to ruin his career.”

He said Mr Setka’s threat “stain the entire union movement”, as “the appalling message it sent was that he will threaten and stand over national businesses if legislated regulators do not bend to his will.

“The ACTU leadership needs to immediately bring the union and its rogue leadership into line. If it remains silent, the only conclusion can be that it supports union thuggery across the economy. The standards the union movement walk past are the standards they accept,” he said.

Comment has been sought from the ACTU. Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke declined to comment on Wednesday.

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said Mr Setka’s demands were “tantamount to corporate extortion”.

“What it does do is once again expose the CFMEU for the thugs and bullies they are. It’s absolute proof that the building industry needs a tough cop on the beat like the ABCC was,” she said.

That’s why the Coalition has promised to restore the ABCC when we are back in Government. People who make such demands have no place in our nation’s building industry in 2024.”

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Mr Setka’s language and behaviour showed why it was a mistake by Labor to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission

ACCI’s chief of policy and advocacy, David Alexander said the ABCC held the CFMEU to account for its rampant violations of industrial law.

“The tactics used by John Setka in the building industry are now spilling into the AFL arena,” he said.

“John Setka is brazenly threatening to hold the AFL to ransom in order to settle an old political score. Australian sports fans will be appalled that their code could be held in such contempt.”

Mr Setka said the demand to sack the “unAustralian” Mr McBurney was backed by the CFMEU’s Victorian, South Australian and Tasmanian branches and would be put shortly to the national executive “who I think hate McBurney as much as we do in Victoria”.

“We will use every resource we have to pursue him,” he said. “They just don’t walk away from a role like that, cost the union millions of dollars and just think they can walk away into the f. king sunset. It doesn’t work that way.

“This is the real world, we go after our enemies and he was our No. 1 enemy and we will pursue him until the ends of the earth.”

Mr Setka said the union would not engage in outright strike action but “if it’s work to rule, and we just work our basic hours, things are going to drag out forever” and projects will most likely run over-budget.

“We are not going to stop a whole stadium but for projects of this nature to get delivered, they have to have the full co-operation on site, and that means a lot of flexibility, a lot of give and take,” he said.

“We get our blokes to work RDOs (rostered days off), sometimes on long weekends. We have a meeting and say “Look, the job’s behind, they need to deliver this on time.

“Let me tell you, god held them if their schedule is ever out of f. king whack because we will not be bending over backwards to do a f. king thing to help them. It’s going to be a hard slog for them.”

The union would also finance ads calling for his removal.

Mr McBurney, a former Australian Football League umpire and organised crime investigator, was appointed in 2018 by the ­Coalition government to head the ABCC, regularly clashing with the CFMEU and its officials, including Mr Setka, as the regulator pursued legal action against the union.

The Albanese government abolished the ABCC.

Stephen McBurney.

Mr McBurney, one of four AFL umpires to reach a 400-game milestone, then began his new role as AFL head of umpiring in April.

As well as the Tasmanian stadium, Mr Setka cited a planned home base for the Adelaide Crows and any works undertaken in Victoria as targets of the campaign.

CFMEU construction national secretary Zach Smith told The Australian that “as the head of the disgraced ABCC, Stephen McBurney brought untold misery to the lives of workers he unfairly demonised and the branch is very rightly expressing the genuine anger of its members”.

“The national union is yet to discuss potential action against the AFL, but there’s zero doubt the pain the ABCC caused under McBurney is still being deeply felt by construction workers across Australia,” he said.

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Hilakari said ­“people’s reputations follow them” and the “AFL’s choice to work with Mr McBurney is worse than their choice to hire Meatloaf (as grand final entertainment in 2011)”.

“AFL is a working-class sport and his track record of blowing the whistle on the unions puts him at odds with many fans,” he said.

The Australian is not suggesting Mr McBurney engaged in any wrongdoing as the head of the ABCC, simply that Mr Setka, Mr Smith and Mr Hilakari have commented about his past as a union watchdog and his role in the AFL

Mr Setka, who will finish his tenure as the union’s Victorian secretary at the end of the year, said the union has an obligation to pursue former ABCC officers and “just wreck their careers wherever they are”.

Upon being appointed ABCC head in 2018, Mr McBurney, who umpired four AFL grand finals, told The Australian he saw similarities in how he approached the job and his role as an umpire, saying he was determined to be impartial. “This (ABCC head) is not a popular position,” he said.

“I am bound to invite criticism, as I did as an umpire.”

Mr McBurney has declined to comment on the present situation.