Covid19

Coronavirus Risks for Construction Workers; Start of year 2020 had brought the world’s businesses to almost a halt with widespread COVID – 19 pandemic. Almost 3 million people have got infected through Novel Coronavirus world wide and has caused a huge economic loss all over the world which exceeds in trillions of dollars. Apart from the health and economic impact on the world it has altered altogether how people interact and do businesses. There are plenty of businesses which are shut off because of this pandemic while those which are still operating are facing the challenges of their workforce safety and how to ensure their health. Among those businesses which are still operating during COVID – 19 , the construction sector is one of these.

Construction employees have been very vulnerable even in ‘normal’ operations when it comes to workplace safety. Construction industry is considered to be the 2nd most dangerous industry in some states of United states. However this emerging pandemic has posed more serious health and safety risks to construction sector employees. Is the construction of some structures more than an emergency hospital “important work” in the current climate? Will it work safely? Can a construction site be really “social distancing?” More specifically, will these workers arrive at their construction sites without using public transport? These are few of the many concerns which the industry’s leaders have to find a quick solution in time of this pandemic.

In most Building sites, injuries tend to occur due to time pressure. When asking a victim or observer of the incident; why their incident happened on day 1 of their employment or day 25 a standard response was because of time pressure. On day 1, inadequate training was the key reason behind many incidents, while all the preceding incidents are caused because of short deadlines and not enough labour to finish the project on time. Time pressure has become more exaggerated during the period of this pandemic, because of shortage of labour supply as well as movement restrictions. Should there be enough time before the pandemic occurs to produce enough ventilators, will there be enough workers in a company to handle the orders now that a majority of other employees are self-isolating? These are some lessons or questions this pandemic has brought to industries leaders.

To cope up this alarming situation for the construction sector; controlled measures must be introduced to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Construction employers remain responsible for providing their workers with a stable work environment, a safe place of work. Employers need to make sure safe transportation for the workers while keeping distance among the workers. The transportation vehicles need to be sanitized as much as possible. Also the employer needs to make sure to arrange the work processes and tasks to ensure social distance among the construction workers, although in some situations in the construction industry it’s not possible.

Where workers work in close collaboration, it raises the risk of COVID-19 exposure. At True North Labour, being a temporary construction employment agency clients and workers safety is very important to us. We have developed high standard protocols to mitigate the risk of COVID – 19 spread among our workforce.As a provider of regular construction labour services, our top priority at @truenorthlabour is the safety of both our clients and employees. We have been following the rapid development of the COVID19 situation, and we wish to address some health and safety measures being put in place to ensure everyone’s safety.