While the issues within one of Australia’s most powerful unions need urgently addressing, fixing the conditions that keep women out of the industry looms as a much larger problem.

The Fair Work Commission’s general manager, Murray Furlong, is moving for the appointment of administrators into the construction division of the CFMEU, following a string of allegations.

Labor’s national executive will meet on Thursday to deal with requests to suspend the union’s affiliations in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.