The building union says it has evidence that up to half the men working on the bridge that collapsed in Canberra's north last month were hired as cash-in-hand day labourers, risking their lives for $40 an hour.
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union says that the workers, who included two of the most seriously injured of the accident's victims, were given just a short ''toolbox talk'' instead of a full safety induction before they were put to work.
For more on this exclusive story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
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