Days after human remains were discovered during digging for the light rail project between Sydney's CBD and eastern suburbs, disturbing footage has emerged that shows a construction worker cracking jokes about the bones as he dug them up and tossed them out of the hole.

After the grisly find on Monday, a spokeswoman for the consortium of Alstom, Acciona, Transdev and Capella Capital (ALTRAC) building the light rail project told Fairfax Media that the bones – believed to be remnants from the old Devonshire Street Cemetery – were "respectfully removed by heritage experts" before further analysis confirmed them to be human.

But the footage, and a whistleblower, have painted a very different picture about how the bones were handled.

Speaking with Seven News, the whistleblower, a worker whose identity was obscured, said he did not want to continue working on the site after the remains were found – but that his supervisor insisted.