Following on from the scottish government response to an immediate lock down in scotland from tonight, constructing & manufacturing will be allowed to continue but under 'review'.

I find this a bafflying decision as legally there is nothing to stop anyone from travelling from the south east of the UK to the North West if they work in construction or manufacturing !

There will be employees who are clinically at risk and will not be able to work from home within the construction industry if there are working on site.

I expect anybody who works on construction health and safety to be very busy dealing with investigating Covid 19 cases & dealing with employees who only get SSP so are forced to come into work as they cant afford to be off excabating the situation on site. This is certainly the case with myself last year.

Whats everybody else's thoughts on this ?

Originally Posted by: Fraser38932

busy dealing with investigating Covid 19 cases

What would anyone investigate? 

Originally Posted by: MrBrightside

Originally Posted by: Fraser38932

busy dealing with investigating Covid 19 cases

What would anyone investigate? 

Often  a joint investigation with the contractors health & safety team & site or senior management. 

If your cure to Covid is to decimate the economy then bring it on - but you are wrong.

Let's be very clear there is only so much a government can borrow to spend on business support - perhaps overdue time to re-allocate the billions being directed in to constructing a saving of 20 minutes on a London to Birmingham train journey.

Even with everyone "jabbed" someone has to be the first "back at work".

Does anyone know the dormancy period of Covid-19? Seem to recall Guinard Island being "off-limits" for several decades post Anthrax testing in 1942 - would you suggest we all stay isolated at home for 50+ years?

Just to temper such comments construction is vital to maintaining the services and infastructure our society relies upon - water, power, effluent, roads, hospitals. Locally we have projects seeking to control devastating floods with the ability to displace families and impact home life (2016 we lost our internet connection for over a month thanks to the floods along with eighty families made homeless).

Even when you consider real "key workers" such as power plant staff there are many aspects of generation the system has driven to being outsourced relying upon travelling trades - ever thought why the national governments have not fully banned "work related travel" - perhaps a less simplistic view of life?

Originally Posted by: Fraser38932

Originally Posted by: Roundtuit

If your cure to Covid is to decimate the economy then bring it on - but you are wrong.

Just to temper such comments construction is vital to maintaining the services and infastructure our society relies upon - water, power, effluent, roads, hospitals. Locally we have projects seeking to control devastating floods with the ability to displace families and impact home life (2016 we lost our internet connection for over a month thanks to the floods along with eighty families made homeless).

If thats the case then why has the PM stated to the nation that there is a lockdown just minutes ago ?

He didn't.  The new measures still include going to work if you can't work from home -so for construction, water suppy workers, power stations workers, hospitals, etc. (pretty much everything that Roundtuit mentioned), this 'lockdown' means still going to work.

Long term mass unemployment shortens lives too.

It wasn't my MP that conducted a 700 mile "round trip" to Westminister suffering Covid last September.

It is the "entitled" who perceive their celebrity, money or presumed societal status protects them from an indiscriminate virus who truly place the ordinary members of society at risk - wasn't it South Africa a recently branded "Covidiot" and ex-Sky presenter returned from?

Unfotunately the words of Gilbert & Sullivan "Let the punishment fit the crime" fall upon deaf ears when it is the FM observed breaching Holyrood regulations.

I work for a manufacturing company, supplying the construvtion industry. The company I work for is not particularly large (around 80 employees) and therefore we have to multi skill. Some where along the line some HR has filtered into my role.

My biggest gripe is we are told to go to work, but then told we are not "key" workers. This means that our employees cannot send their children to school, and yet can't work from home to look after them. If we are to work, we must be classed as "key" workers. Maybe one day people will stand outside and clap for all those that are keeping the country running, and not only those in "respectable" jobs.

Originally Posted by: achrn

Originally Posted by: Fraser38932

Originally Posted by: Roundtuit

If your cure to Covid is to decimate the economy then bring it on - but you are wrong.

Just to temper such comments construction is vital to maintaining the services and infastructure our society relies upon - water, power, effluent, roads, hospitals. Locally we have projects seeking to control devastating floods with the ability to displace families and impact home life (2016 we lost our internet connection for over a month thanks to the floods along with eighty families made homeless).

If thats the case then why has the PM stated to the nation that there is a lockdown just minutes ago ?

He didn't.  The new measures still include going to work if you can't work from home -so for construction, water suppy workers, power stations workers, hospitals, etc. (pretty much everything that Roundtuit mentioned), this 'lockdown' means still going to work.

Long term mass unemployment shortens lives too.

So does contracting covid 19 to !

If this county wants to stop the pandemic then full lockdown required otherwise you will get 60,000 plus cases from now until they are forced to stop everything with resulting hospital admissions and deaths accrordingly.

Originally Posted by: stevedm

Fraser...one major problem that companies have at the moment is that they won't actually address the elephant in the room...they don't know thier employees health or SARS-Cov-2 vulnerability...and along with the government support some are actually claiming furlough for staff and still expecting work....I have dealt with 12 cases in Manufacturing & construction that have in the main involved that exact statement 'I need to work' and in my investigations I have found that most construction companies instead of managing it they just refuse even suspected cases so it sends it underground...it took us a long time to get OH into construction and this is taking all of that good work away when actually it is this that can educate and manage the risk for the individual and the company at work and at home...most risk assessments also do not cover regional variances and even take a good stab at that risk...and don't get me started on the statement 'we have worked through it all the time with no problem..' 

I have seen that scenario also - diffulty is what I call the ripple effect at a site level when site staff are off with Covid and no one is available to take over the reins ! Absolute shambles.

This lockdown will be the same as the last: A waste of time.

As long as necessary to suppress immediate transmission, whilst as short as necessary to protect the economy.

Obviously there will be a conflict. That's one of the problems in trying to appear in control and [appear to want to] prevent infections, while not really wanting to prevent infections.

Level 1 vaccinations have started, and apparently the timetable for level 4 start (me) is around mid-February.

There will inevitably be cases where construction workers spread the virus. As long as they are under 40[ish] and keep away from anyone who is of more advanced years.....they won't though. Pretty much like a large cohort of younger persons who will still congregate in large numbers in several retail estate carparks in town, like last lockdown. No action is noted from those tasked with policing the lockdown, who must note the activity as they collect their free McD coffees.

The irony is, that while exercising their right to risk their own lives, they are actually risking others  lives more. Those of more advanced years presenting at hospital with covid-19 will be very lucky to be admitted to ICU, they are more likely to be admitted to non-ICU palliative care; such is the current state of the ongoing infection that soon even those relatively young may be triaged away from ICU and high-dependency treatment. The mortuary at the local NHS facility is full, but there is a rented refridgerated trailer onsite....

Still, the new strains emerging are "favouring" the young much more. Maybe as their friends disappear into a long wooden box  they will be more cautious? Apparently, such is the progress of the disease that "long wooden boxes" are in short supply and more are being imported (well, they're in the import queue).

You only have one life: There is no sequel. May your God be with you.

Fraser – Unfortunately, a lockdown will not end a pandemic.  As we have seen here in the UK and worldwide, it merely reduces the transmission so the health services can cope. Once the lockdown is eased, numbers sadly start to go up again. This will continue to happen until the vulnerable are immunised, and the less vulnerable develop some immunity by contracting and surviving the infection. If you look at the current vaccination programme, there is no plan to vaccinate anyone under 50 unless in one of the other risk groups.

If we were to lockdown everyone to the extent you seem to be suggesting, it would take years for the virus to go away – if it ever did! By which time many of us would die from poor sanitation, hyperthermia, etc, when services failed, lack of food (under your argument, why should supermarkets be open if construction sites can close?).

Unfortunately, as we Health and Safety professionals keep saying – the world is not without risk – all we can do is try to manage it sensibly.

Could we have managed Covid better? Probably. Have mistakes been made? Almost certainly. Will more people die? Undoubtedly. Do I have a better solution? Absolutely not! We just need to keep doing our best to maintain social distancing, hygiene etc.

Just because the government is allowing construction works to continue, it does not mean all construction works shall continue.

Small jobs like kitchen refits, small home extensions are easy to manage but the larger works are not so easy.

Larger projets have better control in accordance with CDM and notification to HSE.  I believe a responsible Principal Designer would assess all their current projects in consultation with their Clients and Principal Contractor/s to ensure safety of everyone with specific regard to Covid and its variants.

A Client I work for has a new project to start in 2 weeks time but has told me not to work on the Construction Phase Plan until further notice as he has decided not to start due to the risk on site.

Every site will be different and I have agreed he made the correct decision for this particular project.

I wonder if the HSE could play a part here by reviewing the notified projects they already have to see if any are hazardous with Covid in mind.