Business, unions demand Daniel Andrews declare when lockdown ends

Business and unions are ramping up pressure on Daniel Andrews to open up key industries from Monday week.

John Setka wears a fluroscent yellow jacket as he meets with other union leaders in June. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Business and unions are ramping up pressure on Daniel Andrews to open up key industries from Monday week, warning the Victorian Premier must lay out a timeline for a path out of restrictions when he unveils his COVID-19 “road map to recovery”.

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Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox urged Mr Andrews on Friday to back a “much broader reopening of industry” from September 13, while CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka called for an immediate reopening of the building ­industry, declaring 300,000 construction workers “across all sectors must go back to work now”.

But Mr Andrews warned any rapid reopening would not be safe and urged business owners and workers to understand that there was “no alternative” to his cautious approach.

“There is simply no alternative but to ease out of these restrictions in a safe and steady way,” he said.

Innes Willox, chief exectuive of Australian Industry Group.

“I know we all want this to be over ... but the notion of opening up quickly ... it will be five minutes of sunshine and we will be back into these sorts of restrictions again, and that will be no good for any business.”

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Hilakari said ­unions supported the government following health advice but they wanted the construction industry opened because it was a “driver of the economy”. He said the government held talks with unions on Thursday about the proposed creation of ­industry “bubbles” where workers who normally moved between workplaces would be confined to a sole workplace to limit the potential spread of COVID-19.

He said the government should fund a special new payment to workers who lost income due to the bubble, nominating ­labour hire workers who would normally work at several sites.

Asked about the payment push, the government said it was “consulting widely about how best to support workers and businesses as we prepare our road map to ­recovery and will have more to say in due course”.

Mr Willox said manufacturing and construction operated overwhelmingly safely during the ­national shutdown earlier this year “and can do so again”.

He told Mr Andrews that his announcement on Sunday “would be unacceptable to business unless there was a clear public statement on the metrics of what success would look like”.

“You well know the impact of these shutdowns on the community and our economy, and if we are left with an open-ended approach the impacts would be devastating. Again, no business can operate without a clear plan based on numbers and targets, and nor can the government,” he said.

He said “most importantly, we hope Sunday’s announcement is about far more than changes to ­restriction levels”. “The state desperately needs an economic plan, an exit strategy, to set out clearly the measures your government will take to get the economy going. It would be a big and costly mistake to leave planning for the future until after this crisis — it needs to be happening now.”

Mr Setka, in a letter to Mr ­Andrews and the state’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said the commercial construction industry had led workers safely through the COVID-19 pandemic. “We implemented extreme safety measures well beyond those we were required to do in the early stages of the pandemic to ­ensure the protection of all construction workers,” he wrote. “These procedures meant we were better placed than any other industry to continue working and we must be allowed to do just that — not only to protect the livelihoods of the 300,000-plus Victorian construction workers, but to lead the recovery of the Victorian economy.”

He said there had been just three COVID-19 cases in the commercial construction sector in the past six weeks and none in the past three weeks. “As the backbone of this country, the 300,000-plus Victorian construction workers across all sectors must go back to work now,” he said.

Master Builders Victoria chief executive Rebecca Casson did not explicitly back Mr Setka’s call.

“Our industry has had a good COVID-safe record for the last six months, and we are confident that it can meet all requirements of whatever is announced in the road map on Sunday,” she said. “This will help our sector back to full capacity when the data allows it to.”

Asked about Mr Setka’s letter, Mr Andrews said he would be making announcements about different industries on Sunday. “I fully appreciate and understand the pain and the challenge those businesses are facing,” he said.