The Health Services Union claims the workers have faced "ongoing bullying" from upper management who have shown a lack of respect to the essential staff.

The union says about 190 workers are using a tiny, poorly maintained tea room - formally a supervisor's office - which doesn't have basic amenities like running water, but is exposed to asbestos flooring.

ACT Health says a visual test was completed by an independent party but the union wants a sample taken.

HSU NSW/ACT Secretary Gerard Hayes said an HSU site inspection, conducted after workers had been already moved by hospital management, had identified a possible risk of asbestos exposure from the glue used in the room's tile floor.

Mr Hayes said ward services staff, including wards persons and hospital assistants, were given just one week's notice of the move. Workers who were on leave were initially told to come back to work to clean out their lockers before the staff room was moved.

"In its undue haste to clear out the old staff room, hospital management has shown no regard for the needs or safety of its employees," he said.

"Now we have a situation where workers are frustrated at the conditions in which they have to work, angry at the way they have been treated, and concerned about their own health and safety.

"What's more, the hospital is due to be accredited in the next few weeks, so it cannot afford to be making sloppy mistakes.

"All of this could have been avoided with better communication and a little bit of respect."

Sarah Gleeson, from HSU ACT,

said the workers - whose roles included restraining patients when nurses or doctors were at risk and performing CPR on children - deserved a proper tea room.

"Their job is a really emotionally demanding one, they are on foot all day and often dealing with very volatile patients," Ms Gleeson said.

"The alternative they gave was that they could use management's tea room.

"Based on the inappropriate and aggressive responses I've seen from high level management, we would not want them so closely located with management."

A Canberra Hospital wards person said staff felt like they were being treated like "scum, mold and trash" by management.

"[Our relationship with management] has hit rock bottom," he said.

"We feel no appreciation for what we do, the only people who comment on how well we perform are patients or nursing staff, never from management.

"We'd like a written apology and we'd like some consultation involvement in future for changes that affect us.

"There have been multiple occasions where management don't inform us of changes until they are happening in the hospital."

ACT Health says an independent visual inspection was completed on January 22 rated the room as "normal" and found the likelihood of "no exposure to airborne asbestos under normal building use".

"The health and safety of staff, patients and visitors at Canberra Hospital, and all ACT Health facilities, is incredibly important to ACT Health and we take our responsibilities very seriously.

"ACT Health acknowledge the presence of asbestos in some of our buildings given the age profile of these buildings constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"The temporary relocation of staff members from one side of a corridor to the other side is required to accommodate essential infrastructure upgrades to ensure that ACT Health continues to deliver the high quality services that the community expect.

"ACT Health, through its Health Infrastructure Services division, will continue to review its consultation process to ensure all impacted staff, patients and visitors are kept informed of disruptions arising from necessary ongoing improvement works at the Canberra Hospital."