News | 29 July

As Victoria continues to struggle with community transmission of COVID19, the announcement by Premier Daniel Andrews, (re: mandatory Face coverings within the Restricted Areas of Metropolitan Melbourne & Mitchell Shire, (as of 12am Thursday 23rd July)) has been a bitter pill for many to swallow.

We have all done our level best to secure supply of reusable & disposable face masks on short notice & we wonder how the restrictions will affect life and living for the foreseeable future.

The application of this protocol in the workplace setting has not been without its challenges.

To this end, meeting your Duty of Care obligations under the OH&S Act; are as important now, as it has ever been.  

Together with the ‘Construction Industry Guidelines v6’, the below email provides guidance from Worksafe & DHHS, and will serve to answer a lot of the questions which may arise.

As Members of CCF, you have a dedicated resource in me as your HSEQ Officer, to assist with this and other Safety & Environmental queries. I encourage you to reach out and discuss any concerns or challenges that you may have.

Kind Regards,
Trevor Derham
CCF Vic HSEQ Officer
0458 363 368

To view the Face Coverings Guide PDF please click here

Email From WorkSafe Vic To Foundations for Safety Victoria (FSV) SG Members:

Since announcement of the Chief health Officer’s Orders / Directives regarding face coverings we have received many queries in relation to exceptions/exemptions to the requirements.

As specified within the Orders/Directives, workers are required to wear a face covering whilst working unless an exemption applies.

One of the exemptions includes that: Persons for whom wearing a face covering would create a risk to that person’s health and safety related to their work, as determined through OH&S guidelines, including that the wearing of a face covering during a work activity would present a risk to the health and safety of the worker or others (as identified through a risk assessment)

In such cases, the employer must ensure that other controls are in place to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission.  Whilst a worker may not be able to wear a face covering for a particular work activity, absent any other exemptions applying, this would not negate the need to wear a face covering in other circumstances at the workplace e.g. in a lunch room setting.

WorkSafe recognises there will be activities in construction where wearing a mask would give rise to unacceptable risk to workers, and requests that construction employer/employee representatives consolidate a list of such activities and we will soon engage with the industry (via extraordinary meeting of the FSV Forum – Wed 29 July) for purposes of documenting and disseminating typical examples to the broader sector.  

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