John Setka’s CFMEU branch takes over half the nation with expansion into SA and NT

John Setka-led Victorian branch of CFMEU to take formal control of South Australian branch in major expansion of the militant union leader’s national influence.

John Setka will now have the final say over the running of the construction union in half the country. Picture: AAP

The John Setka-led Victorian branch of the CFMEU is set to take formal control of the South Australian branch in a significant expansion of the militant union leader’s national influence.

Mr Setka will now have the final say over the running of the construction union in half the country, serving as state secretary in Victoria, Tasmania and now SA, where there are already signs of increased building costs as the union demands more generous enterprise agreements.

It follows years of white-anting of the SA branch by the Victorian division, with Mr Setka labelling the more moderate SA division “useless c…s” and “f…ing bludgers” in a confrontation five years ago that led to the ousting of former SA secretary Aaron Cartledge.

The Australian has obtained an internal communique sent within the union last week that said the SA branch would now be under Victorian control, as happened with the Tasmanian branch a decade ago.

The statement boasts that construction workers under the Setka-led Victorian division had achieved better wages and conditions and the branch had more members than anywhere else in the country.

“CFMEU Victoria/Tas has a long proud history of successfully fighting for better conditions for its members, negotiating some of the best EBAs in the country, including improved conditions and wages, and the best safety standards recognised around the world,” it read.

The planned CFMEU expansion will cement Mr Setka as one of the most powerful union leaders in the country, despite being forced to quit the Labor Party three years ago.

Anthony Albanese sought to have Mr Setka expelled in 2019 for allegedly denigrating anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty. Mr Setka has strenuously denied those allegations and said the Labor Party had “lost its soul” under the Prime Minister.

The development has caused disquiet within the SA construction industry, where the increased influence of the Victorian branch over the past four years has already seen more strident conduct on local building sites.

Industry sources told The Australian many national companies operating in SA were now “folding” and signing generous new enterprise agreements with the Victorian-controlled SA branch, fearing they would face reprisals on construction projects interstate if they failed to do so.

One agreement certified last month between the CFMEU and construction giant Built Pty Ltd covering two major CBD projects offers generous new conditions that have not been seen in SA.

They include a rostered day off every fortnight, all overtime now being set at double time, a two-year income-protection plan for any member who is injured or falls ill while outside of work, and an annual paid union picnic day.

The planned CFMEU expansion will cement John Setka as one of the most powerful union leaders in the country. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The base pay rate of $52.39 an hour ($102,752 a year) for entry-level construction workers quickly blows out with tiered bonuses for workers operating at increasing building heights, travel allowances of $35 a day and a daily meal allowance of $21.

The Australian has spoken to chief executives of some major companies who are not prepared to go on the record about the union for fear of being targeted.

Smaller builders and subcontractors are worried once the bigger companies agree to these pattern agreements, they will flow on and become industry standard, with the union demanding they be accepted as a matter of course.

One industry figure said the Built Pty Ltd contract represented the equivalent of a 30 per cent payrise which would have to be borne by subcontractors if it was rolled out as the construction industry standard.

“With Labor in power at the state and federal level and the ABCC (Australian Building and Construction Commission) on the way out, a lot of the firms are just cutting their losses thinking they’re lambs to the slaughter with no-one in their corner,” the source said.

Master Builders Association SA CEO Will Frogley told The Australian that he spoke with John Setka last month who reassured him the Victorian branch wanted the building industry to succeed, arguing he had been misrepresented as a militant by the media.

Mr Frogley said he hoped Mr Setka would keep his word, saying that with construction costs already spiralling

unreasonable wage demands and industrial mayhem could be not be sustained.

“SA generally has had a harmonious industrial landscape,” Mr Frogley said. “Adelaide is a big country town built on personal relationships.”

“The cost of building is already going up and up and up, so anything that adds to that is the last thing we need.”

Since the departure of the more moderate Aaron Cartledge as state secretary in 2018, the SA CFMEU branch has broken records for fines after a string of high-profile right of entry clashes.

In the first year after Cartledge was forced aside, the SA branch’s legal costs jumped from $19,634 to $413,194 as it defended an explosion in breaches of industrial laws.

In August last year the SA branch was hit with a record $428,250 in penalties for breaches of workplace laws at the Adelaide Airport.

The Federal Court found the union and six of its officials refused to show right-of-entry permits, ignored directions and bullied workers during the $165m expansion of the airport in 2019.

CFMEU construction division national secretary Dave Noonan downplayed the influence of Setka over the SA branch.

He explained that the internal communique sent within the union had wrongly described the new arrangements as a “merger”, saying that the SA brand would work with the Victorian branch in what the union is calling “cooperative administration”.

The new arrangements have not been formally ratified by SA members yet but have been put to a general meeting of members and also the state’s management committee where they received in-principle support.

Mr Noonan said that under the arrangements SA assistant secretary Marcus Paré would continue to hold his role and that there would also be a local management team.

He said the arrangement was not open-ended but would be in place for two to three years to build up the capacity of the SA branch.

But he confirmed that the new structure meant the SA secretary would now be Victorian secretary John Setka and the SA president would be Victorian president Robert Graauwmans.