A WorkSafe inspector was pressured by a Canberra union official into stopping a concrete pour against his better judgement, he told a royal commission.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
However, under cross examination he later said the concerns about the formwork were serious enough to warrant closing down the site.
In other developments on Tuesday the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union accused builders of "using" the Royal Commission.
"A number of builders view the union's role in safety as as interfering in their business," a CFMEU spokesman said. "They're using the royal commission as an opportunity to to vent that the union stands in the way of putting profits ahead of people's lives."
The spokesman said four people died on building sites in the ACT in 2012 and 2013.
Joseph Bartlett, then a relatively inexperienced inspector with WorkSafe ACT's major investigations team, told the commission that he was called to a Claxton Construction site in Mitchell on February 25, 2013.
"In my view, there were minor safety issues which on their own were not enough to stop the pour," he said.
"I then had a conversation with [Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Dean Hall] and told him words to the effect: 'I won't be stopping the pour as it has been signed off by an engineer as being ready to pour'.
"Mr Hall did not seem happy with this. He got up close into my personal space and shouted aggressively at me, yelling words to the effect: 'If you don't f---ing close the site and someone dies, you'll go to jail'. He was pointing at me and just jabbing sort of but he didn't make contact. [His finger was] very close [to me]."
Under cross-examination, Mr Bartlett later said his decision had been based only on the engineer's statement that the work was compliant, not a physical examination of the site. He also agreed with the CFMEU's lawyer, John Agius, that he had not known at that time that the engineer had been the builder.
Mr Agius suggested Mr Hall had not sworn at him, saying there was nothing in his notes "about any conversation with Mr Hall concerning consequences or being responsible if somebody died, or anything about what you claimed to be intimidation".
Mr Bartlett replied, "No, I'm not proud of it."
Mr Agius said, "I suggest to you that's because it just did not happen the way in which you said."
Mr Bartlett denied this.
Mr Bartlett said the comment had shaken him up.
"I found the situation intimidating because there were four or five angry CFMEU officials standing around me, some of whom are very large men, pressuring me to shut the site down," he said.
A CFMEU organiser grabbed a railing on the side of the access ramp and "forcefully shook them backwards and forwards", Mr Bartlett said.
"Having only been at WorkSafe for around nine months at that stage, I relied on the documents provided by Claxton Construction when I made the initial decision not to stop the pour," he said.
"I was affected by Dean Hall's and the other officials' intimidating behaviour and actions, began to doubt myself, and felt uneasy about allowing the pour to continue."
An engineer told him it was possible to insert a "cold joint" that would allow the pour to be stopped without affecting the structural integrity of the slab.
"I decided to issue prohibition notices [stopping the pour]. This allowed me to defuse the situation by getting the CFMEU officials off my back while limiting any additional costs to Claxton Construction due to to the disruption caused," Mr Bartlett said.
"Had I not been yelled at, then I would have allowed the pour to continue."
A more experienced WorkSafe inspector, Chris Flanagan, arrived at the site a short time later.
"Mr Flanagan and I walked through the site with Mr Rossi [of Claxton] and identified a number of minor issues to be addressed," Mr Bartlett said.
"The effect of the prohibition notices I had issued in relation to the pour was to shut the site down as no other works were being undertaken at the site at the time.
"I believe that had I not been subject to the behaviour of Mr Hall and the other CFMEU officials I probably would not have issued any prohibition notices which resulted in shutting down the concrete pour, as I do not think that there was any imminent safety risk."
Mr Bartlett didn't report Mr Hall's behaviour to his superiors.
"Prior to the incident I had heard stories from other WorkSafe inspectors about bullying behaviour that could be expected from CFMEU officials. At the time I believed what I had experienced was not unusual and I am also usually not one to complain," he said.
