Thousands of Ballarat workers impacted by construction shutdown

Thousands of tradies have been shut out of construction sites across Ballarat and millions will be lost from the economy.

New homes and building sites will be shut down across Ballarat.

Work will stop on 1800 Ballarat homes and $34.5 million will be lost from the economy during the two-week construction shutdown.

Ballarat, 116km from Melbourne, was plunged into lockdown last week after a tradie travelling to Melbourne for work tested positive.

That cluster grew to 18 cases on Tuesday — a day after the state government announced it was shutting down construction sites across the city and some regions, including Ballarat.

According to council, more than 4316 construction workers have been shut out of sites but another 4000 jobs in manufacturing could be impacted.

There are 1800 homes being developed in Ballarat and data from economic and demographic specialist REMPLAN estimates the economy will take a $34.5 million hit.

Ballarat construction worker James Young said the shutdown was tough to swallow.

Ballarat construction worker James Young from WVP Civils said the shutdown was a shock.

“I feel for the tradies and construction workers struggling to provide for their families,” he said.

“I’m definitely not a fan of mandatory vaccines. But to keep the peace I’m just getting it done — 95 per cent of the guys are feeling the affect. Some obviously couldn’t care less because they refuse to get the vaccine.

“I can ensure my workplace has certainly taken precautions to ensure we follow the Covid rules. But some people are way too stubborn and believe this virus is fake which you certainly have to laugh at.”

Dracon Construction has been impacted by the workers ban despite having all of their workers vaccinated

New homes and building sites will be closed across Ballarat and Ballarat’s Dracon Construction owner Adam Drake said his staff had taken it hard.

“No one likes to be told they can’t work, our guys were very sad to hear the news, my crew are all fully vaccinated already,” he said.

“I have fought hard to keep my workers employed. My staff have only taken three mandatory days off over the past two years, that has been no small feat during the pandemic.”

Mr Drake said the latest lockdown was disappointing and Premier Daniel Andrews said punishing the entire industry because of a small few, was not the right thing to do.

“For me as a business owner operating through this whole Covid pandemic has been very stressful,” he said.

“Having to adapt to fluid rules changing on daily basis has been challenging.”

Brett Eddington says Blanket mandatory bans don’t work.

Ballarat Trades Hall secretary Brett Eddington said Melbourne’s protests were hard to watch.

“We need to be calm,” he said.
“The protests were ugly, sadly there were a lot of ring-ins, and anti-lockdown extremists who tried to hijack the protest for their own cause.

“I’ve seen online messages that asked people to stick a high vis vest on and turn up to cause chaos.

“As a union movement we are staunch on the message, that everyone who should get vaccinated needs to — safety needs to be the first consideration.

“Blanket mandatory bans don’t work, if a worker has a legitimate medical reason, they should not be kicked off the job.”

Mr Eddington said the shutdown would be tough.

“It will be difficult, the building industry is a huge employer and considerable economic driver in Ballarat,” he said.

Liberal MP Louise Staley Ballarat families will suffer from the workers ban.

Opposition MP Louise Staley said the shutdown was unfair on local workers.

“The Premier (Daniel Andrews) has lost control of one of his unions, and Ballarat workers are paying a premium price for an action they did not commit,” she said.

“This is a terrible blow to so many Ballarat families, who have worked in construction who now can’t work because of the violent actions of a few people in Melbourne.”