Allegations of impropriety against two more ACT Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union staff members surfaced at the royal commission into unions hearing in Canberra on Monday.
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The commission was told organiser, Anthony Vitler, had threatened to close down building jobs unless lead contractors sacked Claw Constructions from their sites in 2012 and that ACT CFMEU secretary Dean Hall had apparently intimidated a WorkSafe inspector who had initially refused to stop a concrete pour at a site where Claw was employed in 2013.
A former ACT CFMEU organiser, Halafihi "Fihi" Kivalu, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of blackmail after becoming the first commission witness to be arrested last Thursday.
Aaron Golledge, a foreman and site manager with Delorco, said that on May 21, 2012, Mr Vitler and Mr Kivalu came onto the Dellow Developments site, also called the Erindale Site, at Wanniassa.
"Delorco had contracted Claw Constructions to work as subcontractors on the Erindale Site to do the formwork, steel fixing and 'dincel wall'," Mr Golledge said.
"I took Anthony and Halafihi into the office… and we exchanged words to the following effect:
"They said: 'Which contractors are you using for your concreting, formwork and steel fabrication work?'
"I said: 'We are using Claw Construction'.
"They said: 'Claw Construction is not signed up to our EBA. They are not paying their employees correctly and are not doing the right thing. If you continue to use them we will come back tomorrow and shut down your site."
Robert Rossi, a foreman for Claxton Constructions and Claxton's principal, Zoran Stojanovic, made similar allegations earlier on Monday.
Counsel assisting the commission, Jeremy Stoljar, asked Mr Golledge how Mr Kivalu was proposing to stop Claw from working on the site.
Mr Golledge replied: "He just said that he [Claw] will stop - the way that he would stop - if he closed our job down. Then he [Claw] wouldn't be able to work there."
John Agius, acting for the CFMEU, put it to Mr Golledge that: "at no time during the visit on 21 May did Mr Vitler, that is Anthony Vitler, ever say words to the effect: "if you continue to use them we will come back tomorrow and shut down your site."
Mr Golledge replied: "I don't know if it was Anthony or Kivalu but that's what they said."
Claw Construction's Troy Armstrong told the commission on Monday Mr Vitler had told him if he wasn't willing to play ball with the CFMEU, including signing an EBA which would have committed him to paying unskilled builders' labourers the equivalent of $90,000 a year, he should get out of business.
He said he told Mr Vitler: "We are still a small business... don't you care about small business?"
Mr Armstrong said Mr Vitler replied: "I don't give a f--- about small business. Go back and work for Pacific. If you can't beat them, join them."
Multiple witnesses told the hearing CFMEU secretary Dean Hall acted in an apparently intimidatory manner towards a WorkSafe inspector who initially ruled against stopping a concrete pour at a Mitchell building site on February 25, 2013.
WorkSafe's Joseph Bartlett wrote in his witness statement to the commission: "He [Mr Hall] got up close into my personal space and shouted aggressively at me, yelling words to the effect of 'if you don't f---ing close the site and someone dies, you'll go to jail'."
Mr Bartlett will give evidence when the hearing resumes at 10am on Tuesday.
