Access Canberra should explain how its work safety inspectors achieved a near doubling in workplace visits after they became part of the government agency, the ACT's peak union body says.
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WorkSafe ACT, which became part of Access Canberra in 2015, reported increasing its workplace visits 83 per cent in the two years after the merger.
But it has confirmed the increase included 1,434 visits to work sites at community events in 2015-16 and another 1,933 last year, as well as 3000 asbestos-related inspections across the two years.
The visits to events and asbestos sites made up 69 per cent of its workplace inspections since 2015.
UnionsACT has called for WorkSafe to clarify which powers inspectors used to visit workplaces, saying any decision to combine work safety inspections with those carried out by Access Canberra under consumer, building standards and other legislation would make them inadequate.
"We're concerned there appears to be bold inflation of the figures," secretary Alex White said.
"The creation of Access Canberra seems to coincide with a very unusual increase in inspections."
ACT work safety commissioner Greg Jones said the festivals included in WorkSafe's inspection figures were workplaces too.
"Many of the workers who are working at these events are undertaking retail or hospitality activities which we know from data has some of the highest risks and rate of accidents and injury of all professions," he said.
WorkSafe ACT often detected safety issues relating to gas fittings, electrical connections, structural matters, and trips and falls before events started, he said.
"Rightly, and importantly, WorkSafe ACT puts focus on attending and inspecting these activities, not only to protect workers but to protect the broader community that are often in the vicinity (sometimes in large numbers)."
WorkSafe ACT said it recorded its community event and Mr Fluffy workplace inspections before it became part of Access Canberra.
Unions ACT wants the workplace regulator overhauled and claims folding the agency into Access Canberra has softened its approach to work safety.
WorkSafe ACT is slapping employers with fewer infringement notices, which dropped from 13 in 2014-15 to zero the next year, while the number of prohibition notices received under work safety legislation nearly halved in that period to 65 and reached 58 last year.
Mr White says a change in WorkSafe's focus to educating employers rather than enforcement has led to an increase in workplace injuries.
"For some employers, concern or fear of being caught, and of facing a financial cost, is a substantial incentive for the employer to provide safe working conditions," he said.
Mr Jones said WorkSafe made both 'proactive' checks aiming for prevention, and 'reactive' visits after it became aware of a problem.
"Both are critically important and work to support worker safety as well as the safety of the broader community," he said.
