By Sarah McCrea and Fergus Wall
With the short-lasting cease work order late September, the ANU has been forced to admit that their workplace is one that involves psychosocial risk, aggravated by Renew ANU.
Although the cease work order has been lifted, it was officially confirmed on 7 October that the federal regulator, Comcare, will be investigating the ANU.
The ANU is not alone in facing massive restructuring, job losses, and damaging change.
This year at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), there have been major course cuts and redundancies, with over 1,000 subject cuts and over 100 job cuts slated.
However, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported in early September that SafeWork NSW, the safety regulator in New South Wales, paused the university’s in-progress redundancy round. Their rationale was a “serious and imminent risk of psychological harm” to UTS staff.
According to the AFR article, workplace lawyers said this intervention into a “white collar” organisation “could be the beginning of a more interventionist approach to the growing issue of psychosocial risks”.
However, within a week, the order to cease job cuts was lifted. A SafeWork spokesperson said they believed UTS had taken “appropriate action” in regards to the prohibition notice.
But what about the ANU?
The situation is different in the sense that there has not been an official ‘order’ given at the ANU, only a recommendation from a Health and Safety Representative (HSR). This was also lifted. Yet, an email to staff by the CASS Dean, Browyn Parry, revealed Comcare would “review” the Provisional Improvement Notice (PIN) given by an HSR from the ANU, similarly to how SafeWork NSW became involved in the UTS situation.
Comcare is “the national authority for work health and safety, and workers’ compensation.” It looks over workers’ insurance, manages workers’ compensation claims, and acts as a regulator. Most significantly to the ANU’s situation, it regulates organisations’ compliance with the Work Health and Safety Act (WHS Act) and Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act (SRC Act).
Likely, this “review” will fall under two of Comcare’s general roles: “monitoring the extent of compliance in the jurisdiction” and “investigating alleged or potential contraventions”. The reason this is under the jurisdiction of Comcare instead of an ACT regulator is because the ANU is a Commonwealth institution, and therefore, is answerable to federal regulators, instead of state or territory regulators.
Comcare also publicly provides information on claims performance and incidents, including that of ANU (found under the ‘Employers with between 1000 and 4999 FTE’ subheading). Across three full business years at the ANU (2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024), claims lodged have significantly increased. In the 2021-22 period, there were 3.6 claims lodged per 1000 Full Time Employees (FTEs), moving to 5.6 claims per FTEs in the 2022-23 period, and then to 6.3 in the 2023-24 period. Claims accepted have increased in accordance to the inflation in claims lodged. The median incapacity period in weeks has significantly increased. It can be expected that these numbers will dramatically rise for the 2024-2025 period.
The ANU is a self-insured licensee under the SRC Act, which “grants eligible corporations and Commonwealth authorities a licence to self-insure their workers’ compensation liabilities and/or claims management.” The ANU is also covered under the Workplace Health and Safety Act. This, as outlined by the SRCC, “includes [control in] making determinations and paying compensation, including incapacity payments, medical treatment and rehabilitation.” ANU workers may then receive the compensation and medical treatment that the ANU determines should be given.
The ANU’s policy on the procedure of ‘Work health and safety hazard management’ only came into place in August 2025. Contrary to other ANU policies, which are subject to annual review, the ‘Work health and safety hazard management’ policy was reviewed early (this August), having already been reviewed in January of this year, when it was not due for another review until 6 Jan 2026. Further, since the policy’s review, the interval between reviews has widened, with it next slated for re-examination in 2030. However, this may be reviewed again after the findings of Comcare’s investigation.
ANU procedure on ‘Work Health and Safety Committees‘ and representatives states that a Health and Safety Representative “cannot issue a provisional notice to the University unless they first consult with the local area Director where the PIN is to be issued. This consultation is done by going through the Agreed WHS Issue Resolution Process.”
The following is purely based on the ANU WHS Management System Handbook, ANU Policy, and not on the statement of any spokesperson.
Given what is outlined in ANU policy, there was extensive consultation across various time periods involving HSRs, CASS School Directors and/or the CASS College Dean, and potentially Chief Operating Officer, who were identified as “responsible and accountable person[s]”. This consultation was found to have the issue unresolved and, as a result, the PIN was issued, and Comcare became involved.
Further, as work was stopped, the threat to staff must have been either ‘Extreme’ or ‘High’. This means the university needed to “introduce additional control measures to reduce the residual risk to Medium as a maximum.” As the cease work order was lifted, it can be assumed the risk was reduced to medium or lower. It remains to be seen what measures were taken for this to occur.
In an early September statement to media organisation Region, before the cease work order was put in place, an ANU spokesperson stated they were “monitoring ANU’s restructure to ensure it was compliant with the law” and that “a small number of ANU workers have raised work health and safety concerns with Comcare about the university’s change management plans”. The spokesperson also revealed “Comcare has not commenced a formal investigation or issued enforcement notices in relation to this matter to date.”
However, on 26 September, it was confirmed by Region that “an inspection [by Comcare] was underway” at the ANU, with no formal enforcement notices issued as of yet.
On Tuesday 7 October, ANU’s Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Churchill, told Observer “On 30 September, Comcare informed the University that they are commencing a monitoring and compliance activity, in relation to WHS concerns raised by workers.”
“We have commenced working with Comcare on this activity and will provide updates on any relevant matters as they progress.”
More to come.
Graphics by Fatima Usman
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