Victorian tradies advised to leave work if temperatures chill below zero

Tradies have been advised to put their tools down or take lengthy breaks if winter conditions continue to dip.

Tradies have been advised to put their tools down if chilly winter temperatures are 1C or less.

The advice comes from Victorian Trades Hall Council, which recommends site workers “should be stood by on full pay” in particularly frosty conditions.

Thirty minutes of every hour worked should be spent on break when the mercury dips below 9C, according to the group.

However, general occupational health and safety guidelines are less dramatic and recommend the regular half-hour breaks are only necessary when temperatures are between 1C and 4C.

Ten-minute breaks every hour should be taken when the mercury is between 7C and 9C.

The fresh reminder comes as parts of Australia’s temperatures dropped into the low single digits during just the first week of winter.

Tradies have been advised to put down their tools in certain conditions. Picture: iStock

Sky Weather explained the chilly conditions were due to cold “polar air” surging towards the country’s southeast.

“Another polar blast is set to head towards southeast Australia this weekend. That’s going to set up a prolonged cold spell through much of next week,” Sky Weather said.

“It’s a very wintry weather pattern that’s developing through this weekend. We’ve got a cold front approaching and a cut-off low pressure system moving through eastern Australia.”

The channel’s meteorologists also said the chill was due to a cold air mass travelling up from Antarctica.

“Wind should ease on Tuesday into Wednesday, although another frontal system could cause winds to restrengthen from Thursday and possibly linger into the weekend,” Weatherzone said.

Low temperatures will feature heavily and the chaos won’t be over for at least another week.

Originally published as Victorian tradies advised to leave work if temperatures chill below zero