To enable open communication between industry and Queensland Health, Queensland Health has appointed a Construction Industry Liaison. The Industry Liaison will act as a facilitator between the construction industry and Government, helping to ensure that Public Health Directions are implemented as effectively as possible on sites and that questions can be addressed in a timely manner. Hutchies has direct access to the Industry Liaison.
Queensland Construction & Related Industries COVID Safe Plan
As mentioned last week, Hutchies has been part of a working group with other major builders and the building unions to prepare for the likely spread of COVID-19 following the easing of border restrictions. The result has been the production of the Queensland Construction & Related Industries COVID Safe Plan which aims to provide a consistent, practical and proactive approach to the arrival of COVID-19 on construction sites.
The Industry Plan has been developed in consultation and with the support of Queensland Health to provide clarity for sites regarding issues such as cleaning requirements, contact training protocols and what to do in the event of a positive case. The Plan's general intention is to ensure that people are kept safe whilst adhering to Public Health Directions, preventing people being placed in home isolation unnecessarily and maintaining productivity.
The Industry Plan has now been launched and is ready for implementation. Read on for more information.
Much like the current approach that the Queensland Government has taken regarding staged easing of restrictions, the Plan has four phases
which reflect varying degrees of restrictions based on vaccination percentages in impacted areas.
It is expected that outbreaks will be localised to certain areas of Queensland at any given time, and therefore it is an intention of the Plan to follow the Queensland Government’s approach of targeting COVID Safe measures to areas where there is community spread of the virus on construction sites. This may mean that different parts of Queensland are in different phases at the same time. The Plan provides more detail on each phase.
Ben Young will be hosting a presentation on Teams at 2pm, Tuesday 14 December to run through the Plan in more detail.
You will be automatically invited to the session if you are a Team Leader, Project Manager, Health and Safety Advisor or a Team Health & Safety Representative.
For anyone else who wishes to be included in the session, please contact the Coronavirus Team.
As mentioned last week, Hutchies is aware that some clients may be interpreting the recently released alert Vaccination requirements for workers in high risk settings in a way that would require construction workers to be vaccinated to work on particular classes of projects such as hospitals and schools.
The subsequently released COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for Workers in a high-risk setting Direction provides clarification that in most circumstances construction workers are not included in mandatory vaccination requirements, provided the site is separated / delineated from other areas and users of the setting.
For clarity, the Industry Plan which has the support of Queensland Health does not require anyone to declare their vaccination status at a project or to their employer, nor does it require mandatory vaccinations. It does provide an opportunity for people to be vaccinated and tested in paid time.
If you have any questions about how this applies to your site, please contact the Coronavirus Team prior to taking any action.
More new local cases have been detected in Queensland in the last few days.
If you have been in these areas recently, please check and regularly monitor the Queensland Government website as more locations are confirmed.
If you have visited any locations during the posted times please follow the Queensland Government advice and get tested immediately.