WHS Commissioner Jacqueline Agius seems to be in denial, a current employee says. Photo: WorkSafe ACT.
WorkSafe ACT is in damage control, with staff under threat of dismissal if they discuss workplace issues.
It comes as a Federal Court compensation case goes into mediation, and more bullying claims from former employees and the public sector union come to light.
According to a current employee, WHS Commissioner Jacqueline Agius has also denied any knowledge of the May 2023 CPSU letter sent to the ACT Government listing a range of serious workplace issues and calling for intervention.
The employee told Region that staff were suffering in a constantly changing work environment with “crazy” turnover under toxic management, and they felt they had nowhere to go for help.
They said Commissioner Agius had told employees at a recent all-staff meeting that talking about work-related matters would be considered gossiping and serious misconduct, and the outcome could be anything up to and including termination.
They said frightened staff now went well away from the office to discuss their situation.
“Every staff meeting, we just feel we’re like kids at school being yelled at by the principal,” they said.
“One of the most important things in life is being able to talk about how you’re feeling. It’s not necessarily gossiping if you’re saying, ‘I’m really stressed, I feel things aren’t right here’.”
The employee said the most significant issue was a lack of checks or balances and accountability for the regulator.
They revealed that WorkSafe Victoria had been brought in at the beginning of the year to investigate a serious complaint and found its psychosocial hazards processes “ticked all the boxes”.
However, the employee said it was hardly a transparent investigation because the commissioner was able to pick who she wanted to meet with the investigators.
“For staff and worker experience, they just spoke to the managers the commissioner put up to talk to them,” the employee said.
“They didn’t talk to anyone else … SafeWork Victoria didn’t find anything, and all the documentation we had showed that we had safe systems of work in place, so there were no notices to issue.”
WorkSafe continued to update processes and documentation, but the employee said these were only superficial exercises.
They said the behaviour of managers continued to go unchecked, and informal complaints had not been taken seriously or acted on, even though in workplaces WorkSafe inspected, the number of informal complaints was considered an indicator of a poor environment.
“It feels a bit hypocritical that we’re not following the way that we’re regulating,” they said.
The employee said this, and the constant staff and managerial changes left workers confused and stressed.
“If someone has an issue, they’ll just move them into a different team,” they said.
“The managers are constantly getting shifted into different teams, being given different titles, so it’s really hard to know who the manager of what team is and what’s going on.
“It’s just really poor change management.”
The employee said that at an all-staff meeting last Thursday (11 July) after the Region report on the regulator’s workplace issues, the commissioner claimed she had never seen the CPSU letter and that it had not been passed on to her.
“It’s nice it’s coming to light now, but I really hope that something can be done and that there’s more accountability for the agency because the workers there are really suffering,” the employee said.
They said Commissioner Agius seemed unable to take responsibility for the state of the workplace and was more concerned with the media fallout.
Commissioner Agius blamed the amount of change on the fact that WorkSafe was a new agency and insisted her team was trying to create a good culture.
“I’m not sure if she is blatantly unaware of the way things are beneath her or she’s aware but not accepting responsibility,” they said.
“Either way, it’s not good enough as the head of the agency.”
The employee said a ‘crazy amount of people’ had left the organisation and there were about a half dozen staff who were now trying to get out.
“You can see the staff turnover, and as the leader, you would see there is something deeper going on here, and I need to figure this out,” she said.
“If she actually looked at the floor, she would see how unhappy people are.”
The employee was in the office when Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety Minister Mick Gentleman visited recently, later telling journalists that morale was quite high.
But the commissioner was constantly by his side and staff had no opportunity to talk to him privately.
“Obviously, we’re not going to say to him, ‘Help me’, when the commissioner is standing right next to him,” the employee said.
“I’m hoping he can read through the lines a bit more.”
While the commissioner has refused to answer any of Region‘s questions because of the court action brought by former inspector Leith Dawes, the employee said she had made inappropriate comments at a recent all-staff meeting about the $400,000 compensation claim and his hospitalisation for mental health issues.
The employee said it was hard for staff to do their jobs under the current conditions.
“I came into work, health and safety because I was passionate about wanting to make a difference and I think that’s the common factor for everyone there,” they said.
“That’s the worst situation, that we wanted to help, and I’ve heard this story so many times with my friends as well. We all wanted to help make this area healthy for people to go to work and regulate properly, but we are now the ones who need help, but the thing is, no one can help us, and there is no accountability.”
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