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CFMEU is lawless: Grocon boss

The CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union) is a “lawless organisation” trying to impose its own business model on the construction industry, the head of a building giant says.

Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo said unions and businesses should obey the laws of the land.

“I think we’ve had a long history in Australia of the CFMEU being found to be an organisation who simply does not comply with the law,” Mr Grollo told ABC radio on Friday.

But CFMEU secretary Dave Noonan said Grocon should focus on the criminal charges laid against the company over a wall collapse in Melbourne that killed three people.

“Perhaps he should deal with his own legal issues before talking about others,” Mr Noonan told AAP.

“Given the seriousness of the charges against his company, Mr Grollo should resign from the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council.”

A Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption this week heard allegations about the CFMEU banning concrete trucks from Grocon’s CBD sites.

The ban is continuing despite a Supreme Court injunction, the commission was told.

“The construction industry should have the same laws, and laws should be adhered to in the same way as we expect the rest of society,” Mr Grollo said.

“Why should the bullying and threats and the intimidation and the unexplained sabotage occur and be excused on a building site, when they’re not in any other workplace in society?”

The CFMEU has said the Royal Commission is an attempt to revive the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which was abolished in 2012.

The royal commission will hear more evidence on the CFMEU when it sits in Sydney next Thursday.

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