The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union colluded with ACT government officials in a failed bid to have his company kicked off a major building job, the owner of a major Canberra plumbing company has alleged.
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Jason Hooper's Advanced Plumbing and Drains was the major hydraulic contractor employed by Joss Construction on the $47 million Charles Weston Primary School at Coombs which was due to open in the new year.
The contract was worth about $3 million to Advanced Plumbing which had 15 workers on site for 12 months.
Mr Hooper said Joss's site manager, Clint Burgmann, rang him on November 10 [2015] following a site visit by the ACT Procurement and Capital Works project officer.
He said Mr Burgmann told him a senior ACT CFMEU official reportedly told a senior PCW officer Advanced Plumbing were not paying the appropriate insurances and workers were not receiving the right wages, benefits and entitlements.
The project officer told Mr Burgmann Joss would have to "part ways" with Advanced Plumbing and asked how much longer the company would be on the site, Mr Hooper said.
"Clint told me this was the second time that the person had approached him regarding this matter with Advanced Plumbing."
Joss Construction, which is understood to be in the running for other major ACT government projects, has refused to comment.
ACT CFMEU secretary Dean Hall said nobody from the union had contacted PCW about Mr Hooper's company.
George Tomlins, the executive director of PCW, confirmed his office had been "alerted to concerns about Advanced Plumbing and Drains allegedly not paying proper employee entitlements at the constructions site for the Charles Weston School, Coombs, late in October 2015".
Mr Tomlins would not say who raised the concerns, noting "the territory requires contractors and sub contractors, working on ACT building projects, be certified under the territory's industrial relations and employment strategy.
"PCW management advised the relevant project officer that due process required that the concerns be relayed to Advanced Plumbing and Drains through the head contractor for a response in the context of Advanced Plumbing and Drains IRE certification," he said.
Mr Hooper, who said he was astounded PCW would not contact him directly given he had to provide evidence of IRE certification before starting work on any ACT government job, sent an angry email to Mr Burgmann shortly after the phone call on November 10.
"With all the publicity that the royal commission got, I am surprised that any person, department, corporate or association would give any credit to anything a union official would say without asking for evidence to back up the union's slander claims," he wrote.
"The CFMEU were proved to have a slander campaign against my company and others in the royal commission [hearings] by their own minutes from a CFMEU meeting."
Mr Hooper was referring to the minutes of an ACT organisers' meeting dated July 7, 2015, and tabled at the unions' royal commission hearing on October 8.
They stated: "Media release, smear campaign for next three to four weeks, Builtt, Claw, Advance Plumbing, MPR Scaffold, Gungahlin Concrete, Capital Hydraulics, Leamus [sic]".
"When you turned over the page there was writing saying 'get Hooper'. I take the phrase 'get Hooper' to mean some sort of threat," he said.
Mr Hooper said he believed the union had a "very familiar relationship with certain departments and individuals within the ACT Labor government" and that it was "a huge contributor to the ACT Labor government's [election] campaigns".
Mr Tomlins said the original complaint against Advanced Plumbing had proved groundless.
"Advanced Plumbing provided evidence of its IRE certification and PCW was satisfied [it] was meeting its obligations and the matter was closed from the territory's perspective," he said.
