A former senior public servant has told a long-running inquiry into a rogue union that a state Workplace Health and Safety inspectorate was unable to function independently.
Kym Bancroft, a former deputy director-general at Queensland's Office of Industrial Relations, gave evidence the workplace culture of the office was toxic, with "significant psycho-social hazards".
Soon after commencing employment at the office in August 2022, Ms Bancroft assessed the results of a survey of workplace satisfaction at the department.
The anonymised results were scathing, with many respondents identifying Helen Burgess, the former director of construction compliance, as a major issue, often in heated terms.
"These were not the average cultural comments you would read coming into an organisation," Ms Bancroft said.
"It talked to the fact that we have got significant psycho-social hazards going on here - around occupational violence and aggression of inspectors going out to work sites."
