Key facts
- Peter Wilkinson said Evan Tattersall relayed the warning after discussing the dispute with the minister's office.
- Wilkinson said Tattersall referred to contractors John Holland and CPB Constructions, and that he assumed the office meant was Jacinta Allan's.
- Wilkinson said he passed the information to Joe Aygur, general manager of the Rail Network Alliance.
- Stephen Villella said none of the union's safety concerns were serious enough to stop work at the site.
- Villella said union organiser Joe Myles suggested collaborating would assist in winning future tenders such as Melbourne airport rail.
- Villella said workers stayed in the lunchroom for long periods because they were fearful of the CFMEU.
A royal commission into the integrity of major public and civil infrastructure construction projects in Victoria heard on November 13, 2026 that a contractor on a state rail project was warned the minister's office felt it would not "have any more work" in Victoria if it did not resolve an industrial dispute.
Peter Wilkinson, a former Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority official who is now executive general manager of the Suburban Rail Loop authority, told the commission that at the height of the dispute at the Gap Road level crossing in Sunbury he discussed the need for work to resume with Evan Tattersall, his manager at Vida. He said Tattersall told him on either June 6 or 7, 2022 that he had discussed the issue with the minister's office, which Wilkinson assumed meant the office of the then-minister for transport infrastructure, Jacinta Allan.
Wilkinson said Tattersall told him "that if they can't handle the industrial [relations] in Victoria, they can't have any more work", referring to contractors John Holland and CPB Constructions. Wilkinson said he knew the contractors were tendering for the airport rail project but did not know whether the minister's office did. He said he passed the information to Joe Aygur, general manager of the Rail Network Alliance, who told the commission about the warning on Tuesday.
Asked why no record of the conversation existed, Wilkinson said it was moving very quickly and there was no need to formally record it. Vida was criticised by counsel assisting the commission, Chris Young KC, on Thursday for failing to disclose relevant evidence in a timely manner.
The commission's November hearings, running until November 20, focus on the 2022 Gap Road project. It previously heard that CFMEU officials shut the site over purported safety concerns, then allowed work to continue after two of their own health and safety representatives were appointed, with the project changing its traffic and labour hire companies to CFMEU-aligned firms.
Stephen Villella, who worked for CPB Constructions and was delivery director at the site, said it had been "extremely galling" for construction company officials to have to "bend the knee" by meeting the CFMEU to resolve the matter. He said none of the safety concerns were serious enough to force work to stop, and that workers were fearful of the union and would stay in the lunchroom for long periods.
Villella disagreed with evidence from former CFMEU organiser Paul Tzimas that those on site chose not to work, saying they were heavily pressured by union officials. He said union organiser Joe Myles suggested at the meeting that collaborating would assist in winning future tenders such as the Melbourne airport rail project, and that Myles suggested he had direct lines to Allan's office. Villella said Myles left abruptly in the first half of the roughly 30 minute meeting, and rejected a suggestion by Myles' counsel that it was Tzimas, not Myles, who raised the list of union demands. After managers agreed to the demands, work resumed as normal, Villella said.