Building & Construction Industry Working Group: Submission to the Premier, Tuesday 28 July 2020.

CCF Victoria is continuing to work with representatives of the building, construction and development industry, advocating on your behalf to the Premier and the Crisis Council of Cabinet to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on construction worksites.  This is our singular focus in the coming months, as we work to protect our workers and community, and maintain a strong state and national economy.

A key objective of this Industry Group is to inform the Victorian Government of proactive measures and actions implemented across the industry, led by unions, employers and stakeholders, to manage the challenges of COVID-19 and maintain safe operations across the building, construction and development sector.  We consult on potential containment measures, which will have short-term and long-term impacts on the building, construction and development industry and ensure that the Victorian Government has necessary information that may assist decision making.

This week, we made a joint submission to the Premier re-inforcing the actions we are taking that has enabled us to manage the challenges of COVID-19 and how this has strengthened our industry’s capacity for recovery.  As a result of this focused, practical effort, we were pleased to report that positive cases of COVID-19 remain very low in comparison to the overall case numbers in the Victorian community and they have continued to remain low over the last two weeks. Importantly, there appears to be very low transmission on construction sites and between sites with our data indicating that most cases can be traced to community transmission rather than close contact on sites.

Our request to the Victorian Government is that we will continue to assist maintain the building and construction industry as “essential work” and identify further innovative ways to support its ongoing safe operations. We accept that the circumstances can change rapidly and without warning. However, we are very confident that the building, construction and development industry can meet the challenges that confront us, and we always appreciate the level of consultation afforded to us. We have also requested that building, construction and development industry associations, unions and key stakeholders be jointly consulted to minimise impacts and duration and enable planning to occur.

Below is a joint Building, Construction and Development Industry COVID-19 letter submitted to the Premier, that provides details of the Building & Construction Industry Working Group initiatives and collaboration. The paper also requests continued open dialogue with the State Government as we collectively navigate future phases of this pandemic.

https://www.ccfvic.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200728-Letter-to-the-Hon.-Daniel-Andrews-and-Building-Construction-Development-Industry-Position-Document.pdf