No comment: WHS Commissioner Jacqueline Agius did not answer questions because of a Federal Court case still in train. Photo: Ian Bushnell
Allegations from former staff and the public sector union about a toxic culture at the ACT’s workplace regulator have met a bureaucratic brick wall, with both the ACT Government and WorkSafe ACT refusing to comment or answer questions.
WorkSafe ACT gave a one-line statement to Region saying it could not comment because of Federal Court proceedings underway from one former employee, Leith Dawes, who alleges he was sacked after complaining about the regulator’s workplace culture.
He is claiming $400,000 compensation for financial loss and “hurt, humiliation and distress”. That matter is set to go to mediation next week.
“Given the statements raised relate to ongoing proceedings before the Court, WorkSafe ACT is unable to comment,” WorkSafe said.
This is despite most of the issues raised in the Region report pre-dating Mr Dawes’ allegations and involving an official letter from the CPSU to the ACT Government listing a swag of complaints brought to it from former staff members.
The ACT Government said because WorkSafe was an independent authority, all questions would have to be referred to it.
An ACT government spokesperson said that as an independent agency, WorkSafe ACT was responsible for managing its own workplace and work health and safety matters for its employees.
“Consequently, enquiries about the workplace culture at WorkSafe ACT are best directed to the Work Health and Safety Commissioner in the first instance,” it said.
The spokesperson said the Office of the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Commissioner (WorkSafe ACT) was established in 2020 as an independent authority in response to recommendations of a 2018 independent review of the ACT’s work safety compliance infrastructure, policies and procedures.
“Securing the independence of the ACT work safety regulator was a main objective of the reforms, to remove the potential influence of government agencies and officials in matters that it regulates,” the spokesperson said.
“WorkSafe ACT employees are ACT public sector employees and have access to a range of whole of government tools and resources to support their health and safety at work and are able to access mechanisms available under the Public Sector Management Act and their enterprise agreement to address workplace relations issues and grievances that they may have.”
CPSU National President Brooke Muscat sent the letter dated 24 May 2023 to the Office of Industrial Relations & Workforce Strategy listing a litany of issues and calling intervention on behalf of WorkSafe staff.
Ms Muscat told Region that the CPSU has been raising concerns regarding workplace health and safety issues for years within WorkSafe ACT and would not stop bringing them to the government’s attention.
“We are continuing to pursue these issues, including raising them with the highest levels of the ACT Government,” she said.
“Our union remains concerned for the workplace health and safety of both current and former employees of WorkSafe ACT.
“All workers have a right to feel safe and respected at work and the CPSU intends on remaining involved until this is the case.”
The letter alleged staff had been exposed to psychosocial hazards and that there was a pattern of poor workplace culture and change management at WorkSafe.
This involved the misuse of Preliminary Assessments without a basis to punish staff, unclear merit selection practices in hiring senior staff, inadequate training, inadequate support for staff exposed to occupational violence and failures to adhere to public service policies, procedures, values and behaviours.
Former staff have also contacted Region about their experiences at WorkSafe, alleging being bullied out of the organisation, high staff turnovers, and staff having nowhere to take complaints and have them aired safely.
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