Public servants feeling sick and complaining of sore eyes and the smell of poo at the Department of Social Services' new Tuggeranong offices have learnt that grey water vapours have entered their air conditioning.
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After alerting the agency, staff heard it had found a problem and located the worst of the foul odour in the $172 million building's Quadrant D.
An email warned the building's public servants - who moved into the new offices opened last September - to tell bosses if they were "experiencing discomfort" and encouraged them to take short breaks away or move from areas that smelled.
The Social Services department said it had moved staff, and that it had "floor walkers" at the national headquarters checking on them.
It has relocated thousands of its staff into its expensive new Tuggeranong digs at Athllon Drive, Greenway, but the problem with its grey water system has emerged as an early teething problem for the building.
A department spokesman said it began investigating the complaints about the odour immediately this week, and had told staff of the problem right away. He said remediation work was finished by Friday.
"The cause of the odour was traced to a grey water ventilation pipe in the vicinity of an air intake vent on the impacted part of the building," he said.
But a source close to the agency said to The Canberra Times that staff made numerous complaints to the department before it told them the cause of the problem.
An email to staff said the department expected the smell would disappear from the office's floors but that it would monitor the situation.
Builders began work in June 2015 on the six storey, 38,400 square metre building, estimated to be worth $260 million.
Social Services staff were involved in a major exodus from Woden as part of its new office deal, in another blow to the town centre's ailing economy.
The deal to keep thousands of public servants in Tuggeranong was a coup both for developer Cromwell Property Group and for the struggling town centre, but bad news for Woden.
