Premier Daniel Andrews has been criticised for not kicking CFMEU state secretary John Setka and his deputy Shaun Reardon out of the Victorian Labor Party after the pair were charged with blackmail.
But the premier says it's not up to him to judge because the matter is before the courts.
Mr Setka and Mr Reardon were charged with one count each of blackmail on Sunday following an investigation by a joint Victorian and federal police unit that takes on cases referred to them by the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.
The premier said commenting on these serious allegations didn't serve anyone's interests.
"I'm not going to get dragged into word games, back and forth, effectively running a commentary on two people who have been charged with serious matters," Mr Andrews told reporters on Monday.
But the opposition's industrial relations spokesman Robert Clark was more vocal.
"Daniel Andrews needs to face up to this and cut ties between John Setka and the CFMEU and the Labor Party. He can't keep running away from this," Mr Clark told reporters.
In July last year the head of a major concrete supplier told the royal commission into unions the CFMEU was allegedly blackmailing them in a bid to control Melbourne's construction sites.
A Boral executive told the inquiry it was part of the union's "war" with developer Grocon.
The CFMEU says Mr Setka and Mr Reardon, who are due in a Melbourne court on Tuesday, will fight the charges and plead not guilty.
Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten says the party does not tolerate criminal conduct by trade unions.
"Labor has zero tolerance for criminality and illegality. That is the standard which we will enforce," he told reporters in Melbourne.
