{"id":75474,"date":"2020-04-28T14:04:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T13:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=75474"},"modified":"2020-04-28T14:04:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T13:04:21","slug":"covid-19-testing-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/covid-19-testing-construction\/75474\/","title":{"rendered":"Unite calls for Covid-19 testing to protect construction workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covid-19 testing should be made readily available to construction workers to help tackle the virus\u2019s spread, urges construction union Unite<\/a><\/h2>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail has written to\u00a0secretary of state for health and social care Matt Hancock calling for construction workers to be offered Covid-19 testing.<\/p>\n

Cartmail stated including construction workers in the government\u2019s Covid-19 testing<\/a> regime is\u00a0\u201cone of a number of measures necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19\u201d.<\/p>\n

Construction site \u2018confusion\u2019<\/h3>\n

She said:\u00a0\u201cMany construction workers\u00a0continued to work through the lockdown and furloughed workers are being phased back ahead of other sectors. The recently relaxed guidance<\/a>\u00a0from the Construction Leadership Council (CLC)\u00a0on social distancing whilst at work\u00a0is undermining efforts to get agreement on safe working practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperating advice for building sites based on CLC\u00a0guidance<\/a> states that construction workers\u00a0can work face to face within two metres of each other as long as it is for\u00a0\u201815 minutes or less where possible\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnite believes with good practice social distancing can be maintained for most tasks and where this is not possible the task should not be undertaken. However, to date there is evidence of confusion and if the 15-minute relaxation persists it will heighten concerns about spreading Covid-19 into communities and workers\u2019 homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key worker Covid-19 testing<\/h3>\n

Cartmail added: \u201cThere are financial pressures bearing down on workers\u00a0to\u00a0go back to work as more than 50% of all construction workers are\u00a0self-employed. Unite lobbied and won financial support for self-employed construction workers but the long delay in accessing support\u00a0is a real issue\u00a0that\u00a0many are grappling with.<\/p>\n

“Unite believes construction workers should be included within the sectors designated for Covid-19 testing as one of a number of measures necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment needs to understand that construction workers have travelled to and from work amongst these other key workers and will continue to do so. For testing to be effective within the key worker group construction workers must be included.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covid-19 testing should be made readily available to construction workers to help tackle the virus\u2019s spread, urges construction union Unite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[676,54592,432,572,579,753,17722],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-75474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-health-safety-news","7":"tag-construction","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-health-safety","10":"tag-housebuilding","11":"tag-infrastructure","12":"tag-safety","13":"tag-unite-the-union"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnite calls for Covid-19 testing to protect construction workers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Covid-19 testing should be made readily available to construction workers to help tackle the virus\u2019s spread, urges construction union Unite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/covid-19-testing-construction\/75474\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unite calls for Covid-19 testing to protect construction workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Covid-19 testing should be made readily available to construction workers to help tackle the virus\u2019s spread, urges construction union Unite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/covid-19-testing-construction\/75474\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planning, Building & Construction Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-28T13:04:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Unite-calls-for-Covid-19-testing-to-protect-construction-workers-\u00a9-I-Wei-Huang.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steph Blundell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Unite calls for Covid-19 testing to protect construction workers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Covid-19 testing should be made readily available to construction workers to help tackle the virus\u2019s spread, urges construction union Unite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/Steph_PBCToday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/covid-19-testing-construction\/75474\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/covid-19-testing-construction\/75474\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steph Blundell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/baf6766a43e70a35cada0c600519a2fb\"},\"headline\":\"Unite calls for Covid-19 testing to protect construction workers\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-28T13:04:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/health-safety-news\/covid-19-testing-construction\/75474\/\"},\"wordCount\":342,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Construction Processes\",\"Coronavirus\",\"Health & Safety\",\"Housebuilding\",\"Infrastructure\",\"Safety\",\"Unite - 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