Workers at a Canberra childcare centre were asked to "authorise" the removal of asbestos sheets from an ACT government works depot next door before work proceeded without a signature, the manager of the centre has said.
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Annamaria French runs the Macquarie Childcare Centre, and said that earlier this month two men tried to solicit a signature from one of her workers giving the "go-ahead" to remove asbestos from the neighbouring depot, which is used to store equipment by the Parks and Conservation department.
"She said to him 'no way am I signing that' and they said 'OK well we'll have to go back to the boss about this' and they took off," Mrs French said.
But despite failing to get the signature, work proceeded the following day, which was a Saturday.
"[The next] morning my director had to go down to the centre because we were having the place sprayed for insects and rodents and she said 'oh they're out there and they're actually pulling out the asbestos sheets'," Mrs French said.
The incident has called into question the protocols around the notification of asbestos removal works.
Although a WorkSafe ACT inspector told the director the removal of the asbestos sheets was low risk, Mrs French said many parents would not see it that way.
"If my parents had known this was happening ... I would have liked to have been able to give them the opportunity to keep their children home," she said.
A spokesman for WorkSafe ACT told Fairfax Media prior to any licensed asbestos removal work being carried out at a workplace, the removalist must inform nearby homes and businesses but did not need "permission" as such.
"As part of the contractor's internal processes, a signature is sought to say that neighbours have been informed," the spokesman said.
"While a signature was not obtained, the contractor determined that all relevant neighbours were informed of the work proceeding."
The spokesman said the childcare centre had received notice prior to the removal of the asbestos, however there was no mandated timeframe for this in the code of practice.
But Mrs French said before the day the childcare centre was informed, they had no idea asbestos removal would take place and would have welcomed the opportunity to inform parents.
"You don't walk in and say 'sign here, we're going to start some work'. That's not the way it works," she said.
