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Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

UnionsACT call on Peffer to be removed

DURING a rally in Dickson today, October 26, UnionsACT will call for the head of Access Canberra, Mr David Peffer to be removed from his role as regulator of workplace safety, and will demand the ACT government set up an independent work safety authority. 

Alex White
UnionsACT secretary Alex White.
The ACT is the second least safe place in Australia to work, and is the most dangerous place for construction workers. UnionsACT says the number of serious injuries has increased in recent years, following the merger of WorkSafe ACT into Access Canberra. But, at the same time, the number of compliance activities and workplace visits has decreased.

UnionsACT secretary Alex White says the unfortunate truth is that under Mr Peffer’s leadership, more working people are being injured and dodgy bosses are going unpunished.

“The ACT currently has Australia’s weakest and most ineffectual safety regulator. Our rally today will blow the whistle on Mr Peffer and the weak leadership team that has made working people less safe,” he says. 

“The experiment to merge WorkSafe into Access Canberra has failed. It is time for work safety to be taken seriously, and to do that working people need a strong, independent WorkSafe, not the weak-safe that we have now.”

Mr White says responsibility for the worsening safety record for the ACT’s workplaces must fall to Mr Peffer, the deputy director general of Access Canberra. Under Mr Peffer’s leadership, Access Canberra has substantially weakened the ability for Work Safe inspectors to do their job, hindered unions, and prioritised ineffective safety education programs such as newsletters and Twitter updates.

UnionsACT will rally in Dickson at 11.30am, today. 

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