The building industry in Victoria is rushing to distribute multi-lingual COVID safety information as the industry in Melbourne moves back into gear.

As COVID restrictions in Melbourne ease from today, seventeen industry bodies and unions in Victoria have combined to produce COVIDSafe resources including posters and tiles in sixteen different languages.

These remind workers to:

  • Remain home and get tested if feeling unwell.
  • Remain home if a family member has COVID-19 or is awaiting results
  • Wear masks property including when travelling to and from work
  • Refrain from travelling together in vehicles to and from work
  • Refrain from sharing lunch and eating only in designated areas
  • Refrain from sharing tools
  • Use hand sanitiser when entering the site and after meals
  • Check on their workmates in terms of masks, hygiene and health
  • Remain 1.5 meters apart from other workers.

The materials are available for free download in English, Mandarin (simple Chinese), Cantonese (traditional Chinese), Punjabi, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, Dari, Pashto, Vietnamese, Sinhalese, Nepalese, Korean, Indonesian, Greek and Croatian.

The material’s publication comes as Victoria has taken its second step on its reopening roadmap, which will see more workers allowed onto building sites along with the reopening of display homes and land sales offices.

It forms part of industry efforts to keep building sites safe and ensure that workers understand necessary COVID measures irrespective of their English language ability.

The organisations publishing the material include CFMEU Victoria, Master Builder Victoria, IncoLink, National Electrical and Communications Association, Electrical Trades Union, Master Plumbers, Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Association, Property Council of Australia, Urban Development Institute of Victoria, Metal AMWU Workers, Civil Contractors Federation, The Australian Workers Union, Australian Institute of Building, Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association, Australian Constructors Association, prefabAUS and National Fire Industry Association.

In an alert to its members, UDIA Victoria has encouraged its members to post the material onto all active work sites, display centres, land sales offices and sales suites and to encourage their colleagues across Melbourne to do likewise.

UDIA is also encouraging its members to share photos and videos with UDIA Victoria to be shared with government and industry.

In its alert, UDIA Vic tole its members that getting communication out in languages other than English was a critical part of keeping building sites safe and open.

“On September 28 the Victorian Government is due to progress to the second stage of restriction removals,” the UDIA said in its alert.

“This includes increasing construction site capacity from 25% to 85% on large scale projects, up to 20 workers per hectare on land development projects, and greater site movement on small-scale project. The increase in industry capacity is a direct result of the construction industry following the rules and is a recognition of the proactiveness of our industry in our collaborative efforts across employer associations and unions.  UDIA Victoria is proud to have played a lead role in this effort on behalf of the building, construction and development industry.

“However, we need to remain highly vigilant in the enforcement and monitoring of the rules. To assist the industry, we have created a series of posters in 16 languages to ensure that rules are available to all, regardless of language.”

The material will be updated weekly.

Posters with the above message are available for free download in sixteen languages.

 

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