In criticising the deal between Fulton Hogan and the CFMEU, Peter Middleton, director of rival construction company Woden Contractors, said such over-award payments were commonplace on major infrastructure jobs and cost taxpayers and investors billions of dollars a year.

"Estimates vary… at between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of national construction expenditure which is a huge sum," he said.

Mr Middleton said Fulton Hogan's CW4 Majura Parkway construction workers were paid $2536 a week, $1094 more than the adjusted weekly total under the award. Construction worker grades range from CW1 to CW7.

Cord Civil, another contractor which has worked on the Majura Parkway, pays its CW4s $1988 a week, $547 more than the award.

Both firms confirmed the over-award agreements. Fulton Hogan said it didn't cost taxpayers anything as contracts were won through a competitive tendering process.

Mr Middleton, whose company helped build the Kings Avenue Overpass and widened Parkes Way, disagreed, saying anyone after a big government job factored "major projects" pay rates into their bid to ensure industrial harmony.

"Individual companies don't lose [so long as everyone else pays the same labour cost] but the Australian taxpayer does," he said. "If it wasn't for the taxpayer it would be a victimless crime."

Pay rates were dictated by the union, he said.

"The CFMEU has become a very powerful organisation that often has little regard for due process, whose actions are counter-productive to Australia's best interests and is not answerable to society for their behaviour," he said.

Mr Middleton said the union's pattern bargaining worked because builders in the big end of town wanted peace at any price.

"Once a government awards a large infrastructure project to a construction company, that project becomes a temporary monopoly within a localised area," he said.

"The second stage [for the CFMEU] is to make sure the large companies insist all subbies have union pattern agreements. Even good people get dragged into a corrupt process as the alternative is to go out of business."

Fulton Hogan said the Majura Parkway pay rates were "similar to that paid on any project of national significance in Australia".

Cord Civil director Stuart Ritchie said his company's enterprise agreement was "in line with EBAs many other local contractors have in place" and reflected conditions at the time it was signed.

"Market conditions were blown out of the water by two major factors, the Cotter Dam enlargement and then the Majura Parkway," he said.

"Cord Civil is always concerned over additional cost burdens that are placed onto industry and, ultimately, the end user."

ACT CFMEU secretary Dean Hall defended the agreements. He said the Fulton Hogan EBA would cover highly skilled workers involved in bridge construction.

"I hope the people working on these [jobs] are highly motivated, highly skilled and well paid," he said. "We will be driving over their work and you wouldn't want it to fall over."

Mr Hall said the rates were in line with those paid on other major projects across the country.

Mr Middleton included the pay rates in his response to the trade union royal commission's discussion paper on labour law reform.

The paper mooted laws based on America's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act [RICO] to deal with unions and union officials engaged in blackmail and extortion and racketeering activities.

Individuals found guilty of RICO offences in the United States can be jailed for up to 20 years.

In 1984 Ship Painters and Dockers Union Royal Commissioner Frank Costigan said RICO laws were "an essential step to be taken in combating organised crime in this country" [Australia].

Local support for RICO laws, which would apply to builders as well as unions, was thin on the ground in the discussion paper responses. Only Boral, the victim of a well-publicised CFMEU boycott, backed such a move.

The Housing Industry Association ignored RICO altogether while the Master Builders' Association was worried about unintended consequences.

"Whilst Master Builders understands the basis of the reform proposal [RICO], more detail on the effect of the application and greater research on the potential effects beyond the activities of the unions under scrutiny via the current inquiry should be undertaken," it stated.