Thousands of public servants and ADF personnel risk electrocution when they show up for work at the Defence Department's Canberra offices each day, a union alleges.
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A fault with electrical wiring has been detected, with thousands of desks at Campbell Park and Russell offices having the potential to send 240 volts coursing through the work stations and the staff working there.
But the department says it is taking action on the problem, that it has called in the proper authorities and issued the appropriate warnings to workers.
The danger comes from desk-mounted power boards that are secured to the furniture by a set of pins which can come loose, allowing the plugs to come into contact with the desk and sending a dangerous jolt of electricity through it.
The department acknowledges one incident when a desk went live late last year but denies union claims of a second, similar health and safety breach last month.
The department will not say how many workstations are potentially affected but technical union Professionals Australia says up to 4500 desks at the department's sprawling Canberra offices could be posing a threat to users.
Union official Dave Smith said the desks werea clear and present danger to workers and departmental bosses should have done more and acted earlier.
"When you have an electrical concern with thousands of workstations, it's not a low or acceptable risk," Mr Smith said.
"It needs to be rectified, particularly when the department has known about it for some time.
"As far as we know, they've known about this for six to 12 months and it's still an issue, particularly at Campbell Park."
The drastic downsizing of the department, which has shed several thousand jobs in recent years with more cuts to come, has affected its ability to react to health and safety threats, according to Mr Smith.
"Pressure on Defence staffing has made it difficult to ensure these risks are remediated," he said.
A department spokeswoman confirmed there was a problem with the desks but said the appropriate steps had been taken to manage the issue.
"To prevent unsafe conditions, Defence has engaged with the ACT Electrical Safety Inspector in April and has subsequently commenced a program to inspect and fix all soft-wired power supplies," she said.
"This program will commence next week.
"Defence has issued a safety bulletin to all staff advising of this safety risk with clear instructions to enable staff to safely inspect their workstation and report any concerns.
"Reported issues are being actioned as they are notified."
The spokeswoman defended the department's handling of the threat from the desks, saying the health and safety of its employees was "paramount".
"The health and safety of the Defence workforce is paramount and Defence has a comprehensive safety management system which aims ensure that no Defence employee will suffer a preventable injury at work," she said.
"The system ensures that hazards, including electricity, are appropriately managed at all Defence workplaces."
