The worker, who asked to remain anonymous, was sacked on Wednesday from one of the demolition companies after he raised concerns about the way furnishings, fittings and household goods were being taken from houses for resale.

After being alerted by The Canberra Times on Wednesday, the Asbestos Taskforce asked the police to investigate.

"These allegations are serious and it is important that an investigation is undertaken into them," a spokeswoman said.

The taskforce also wrote to all 10 head contractors on Wednesday reinforcing the fact that they must not reuse or resell anything from a Fluffy house. And the government's procurement and capital works department began a separate investigation.

On Wednesday, the Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union visited a yard used by one of the Fluffy companies, where a union inspector photographed items inside a shipping container, including a household cabinet that showed traces of red paint.

The Asbestos Taskforce is using red paint to mark furniture and fittings in Fluffy houses to ensure it is dumped, as required, and not reused. The items are considered contaminated and owners were not allowed to remove fixtures that were attached to walls, such as kitchens and cupboards because of the contamination risk.

But the worker alleges one of the demolition contractors is using turpentine to clean the red paint before removing and salvaging items. He has photographs of the turps in one house. He claims to have seen bathroom tastics, wooden burners, heating and airconditioning units, fans and other items trucked by one company to its warehouse. He claims senior figures in another company have taken children's Lego and clothes, an entire kitchen, hot-water systems, and other units. The company salvages copper piping and lead from roofs, he says. He says a piano was removed from one house.

The worker has a friend who owns a Fluffy house and said he knew how attached former owners were to their homes and their possessions. He was sickened to know that workers are going through children's bedrooms and taking toys.

While he feared for repercussions from former employers after he took his case to the union, he said after three months with one contractor, and work with a separate company last year, he was sick of seeing what was going on.

"This is just disgusting," he said. "There is no respect whatsoever. I'm trying to teach my kids to have manners and to work hard. I should teach them to steal and rip people off."

The Canberra Times has visited the yard inspected by the CFMEU this week. The yard contains items such as roofing iron, fencing and roller doors. The shipping container contains what appears to be a bathroom cabinet and a door, as well as other items.

CFMEU ACT secretary Dean Hall said a company representative on site had told the union inspector "that he had taken this material from Mr Fluffy site but from a non-contaminated area. He advised [the inspector] the purpose was to recycle the material".

The representative had also told the union the shipping container and its contents had been sent from Brisbane for use in a recycling business in Canberra. According to the union, the company said the other items in the yard were from Fluffy houses and stored there to be recycled.

The taskforce guidelines say while material from Fluffy houses cannot be reused or sold, some items can be recycled. Recycling is limited to: white goods and recoverable metals such as antennas and washing machines; green waste except tree root stumps; and hazardous waste such as chemicals, batteries and paints.

Mr Hall said the union had raised concerns previously with the ACT government about the use of non-union demolition contractors offering low prices and employing a vulnerable casual workforce.

Demolitions should stop and an independent inquiry should be called, he said.

ACT Policing said it was "assessing a referral from the Asbestos Response Taskforce regarding the alleged theft of property from houses acquired by ACT government for demolition".