COVID-19 has delayed school building projects and contractors hefty fines

Victorian building contractors fear they will be slapped with hefty financial penalties for failing to build new schools on time.

Exclusive: Building contractors fear they will be slapped with hefty financial penalties by the State Government for failing to build new schools on time.

Due to months of lockdown and heavy restrictions during the COVID — 19 pandemic, construction workers now have serious concerns they will be unable to meet their contract deadlines.

Under the Victorian School Building Authority the state government has committed $9 billion to more than 1600 school upgrades, but some builders face penalties ranging anywhere from

$500 to thousands of dollars a day for every day they are late on delivering their school project.

One Melbourne building contractor, who did not wish to be named for fear of retribution,

said he expects his work to run at least three months late and his workforce are now “working under duress”.

He said he’s “constantly been in an anxious state”.

“We’re not interested in getting in a legal dispute, we just want them (VSBA) to confirm they will not impose penalties for running late,” the contractor said.

“We are out on the job doing double shifts because at the end of the day we don’t know how severe the penalties will be.”

He’s been told he won’t know whether he faces penalties until the work is completed and instead the job will go from “profitmaking to a loss”.

Some builders are engaging lawyers to try and resolve the dispute.

The Victorian Building Authority has rolled out new education facilities across the state as part of its $9 billion infrastructure project. Pic: Victorian School Building Authority.

Opposition spokesman for education David Hodgett said many builders have had “six or seven months of lockdown and they are trying to keep projects running with limited people”.

“It’s a complete lack of understanding by the government of the impact of their restrictions on small business, they’ve got no idea,” he said.

“The hotel quarantine disaster was the greatest policy failure that caused the second wave and resulted in the harshest lockdown restrictions, now these projects are behind.

“The State Government has failed to acknowledge that.”

Mr Hodgett said instead new completion dates should be set that are fair for all parties involved.

In question time at state parliament this week Education Minister James Merlino was asked about the large financial penalties many contractors face but failed to confirm whether they would refrain from imposing them.

“The Victorian School Building Authority has high expectations of all our contractors,” he said.

“I am not going to rule out anything but what I will rule in is that we will deal appropriately with every single contractor.”

Minister Merlino said “our parents expect schools to be built on time”.

But when contacted on Friday a spokesman from the minister’s office said, “where claims are legitimately caused outside the builder’s control, such as impacts of COVID-19, then penalties are not applied”.

The VSBA was established in 2016 to oversee the construction of new schools and early childhood centres and also the upgrade of existing premises.

@sophieelsworth