The federal government work and safety regulator Comcare has found Australian National University did not meet the requirements of work health and safety laws.
In September 2025, staff from the university's college of arts and social sciences stopped work because the organisation was deemed psychologically unsafe.
The main concerns arose from communications from the university about Renew ANU, specifically an email to staff which said there would be no more forced redundancies but this did not include staff from the college of arts.
"Messaging in the communication resulted in ambiguity and uncertainty for workers," the Comcare report said.
This was before the resignations of vice-chancellor Genevive Bell and chancellor Julie Bishop.
Between August 28 and September 30, 2025 there were 32 reports to Comcare about the Renew ANU restructure.
Some reports included suicidal ideation and threats of self-harm.
The Comcare inspector found the university breached the work health and safety act by not holding safety meetings every quarter.
Concerns were also raised about increased workloads because of redundancies and staff shortages, poor management communication and lack of support for managers discussing redundancies with staff.
The university has accepted the findings but the union has called into question college leadership.
"We know this report reflects real impacts on people across our community. Thank you to those who raised concerns and contributed to the inspection process," chief operating officer Michael Schwager said in an email to staff.
"We accept the findings and recognise there is more work to do."
National Tertiary Education Union ACT secretary Lachlan Clohesy said the report shows it was appropriate for the college to be shut down even though it is typically unheard of.
"We've recently written to the interim vice-chancellor with concerns about that college's leadership," Dr Clohesy said.
"We're calling on the ANU to explain why the university believes [College of Arts] dean Professor Bronwyn Parry's leadership is still tenable."
Since the stopwork action, the university has had major leadership changes with the resignation of the former vice-chancellor, chancellor and council members.
