WorkSafe ACT will be restructured to become more independent, after an external review found the current governance model gave the workplace watchdog a low degree of autonomy.
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The review also found the agency was focusing its efforts disproportionately on the construction industry and inspectors were confused about its educate and engage approach to compliance.
The Nous group review was commissioned in May by Regulatory Services Minister Gordon Ramsay and Employment Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, after unions last year said folding the agency into Access Canberra in 2015 had softened its approach to work safety.
While the review noted WorkSafe ACT had never been a separate entity and had been a part of a directorate for most of its history, its current governance model had a low degree of independence.
The budget had also stagnated since the agency moved to Access Canberra, and the current structure lacked the resources to identify and respond to emerging work safety issues across different industries.
Critically, the review recommended WorkSafe be overhauled and a single commissioner instilled with the statutory authority to regulate workplace health and safety in the ACT.
As it stands, Work Safety Commissioner Greg Jones is not the regulatory decision-maker - the director-general of Access Canberra is.
This creates confusion about the role the commissioner performs, especially as Mr Jones is also the director of the workplace protection division in Access Canberra.
"We ultimately recommend a new governance arrangement that provides for an independent work health and safety regulator that has regulatory authority vested in a single commissioner. This model best addresses the need for independent decision-making and creates role clarity," the review said.
The review found the use of improvement notices had dropped by 75 per cent since WorkSafe became part of Access Canberra, while prohibition notices fell 59 per cent and infringement notices declined by 69 per cent.
"This decline in the use of notices is consistent with the [engage, educate and enforcement] compliance model adopted by WorkSafe ACT which emphasises engagement and education as a priority," the review said.
That model is referred to as the 70:20:10 model, referencing Access Canberra's overall target of 70 per cent engagement, 20 per cent education and 10 per cent enforcement.
The review said the intent of the model was to encourage inspectors to use their full range of tools to achieve compliance, rather than reactive enforcement.
However inspectors said the introduction of the model was "confusing" and they were not clear on when they should address potential safety issues through education or through notices.
"The inspectors were also not clear on the distinction between education and engagement. Inspectors misunderstood the model to mean they were not permitted to conduct an inspection if they had not done an appropriate proportion of engagement and education," the review said.
"They continue to struggle to understand the balance expected of them across engagement education and enforcement. For example one inspector asked: 'Does a single inspection cover all three or only one at a time'."
There was also a great deal of confusion about what was meant by risk-based regulation and how that worked in WorkSafe ACT.
Instead of its inspection activity being driven by data, the review found WorkSafe pursued audits reactively, based on the opinions of stakeholders and the preference of management.
While there is a new claims system that gives WorkSafe ACT the ability to undertake data analysis, the information is being used in an ad-hoc way rather than strategically and it does not drive the allocation of resources.
“When we go out and do an industry audit it would be randomly picked out of the yellow pages," one inspector told the reviewers.
The review also found WorkSafe ACT was disproportionately focusing its inspections on the construction industry.
Over half (56 per cent) of workplace visits in 2017-18 were to construction sites, even though the industry accounted for fewer than 20 per cent of private sector workers compensation claims in the same period.
In contrast, 40 per cent of total private sector claims occurred in the other industries singled out by the reviewers as deserving of attention - retail trade, accommodation and food services, professional scientific and technical services, healthcare and social assistance, and education and training.
They represented less than 20 per cent of the workplace visits by an inspector over the same period.
The healthcare and social assistance sector had 614 claims in 2017-18 but WorkSafe only carried out nine visits. There were 2761 inspections in the construction industry in the same period and 653 claims.
There were also 207 claims in the education and training sector last financial year but only 18 inspections.
WorkSafe recently placed an enforceable undertaking on the ACT Education Directorate after a two-year investigation into violence in public schools found the government had failed in its duty of care to staff.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the government had given in-principle support to all 27 recommendations of the review, including the structural reform.
Staff were informed of the restructure on Tuesday.
"Any change to the structure of WorkSafe resulting from this review will require consultation with WorkSafe staff, unions and other key stakeholders to ensure that we get it right," Ms Stephen-Smith said in a statement.
"Over the coming months the government will work to ensure that the changes made will support the safety of workers now and into the future."
Unions ACT secretaryAlex White said the findings of the review disproved earlier assertions that WorkSafe had not been compromised by the amalgamation.
“The head of Access Canberra and his executive team must take responsibility for the botched work safety regulation, confusion and failure to prevent injuries. It would be appropriate for the Minister for Regulatory Services to review the failure of leadership and administration that the review has revealed," Mr White said.
Master Builders Association ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins welcomed the restructure.
"The MBA has long advocated for a strong, independent, regulator to oversee workplace safety and we are pleased that the review has acknowledged this as a key priority," Mr Hopkins said.
“It is important that government work to improve the safety performance of all industries, however unfortunately in the construction industry safety is often used by some stakeholders to advance other agendas, including industrial relations agendas."
