Covid NSW: Tradies hit with more than $200k in fines over health order breaches

Unvaccinated and unmasked tradies living in LGAs of concern have been refusing to give information and running away from government inspectors to avoid fines. See the list of suburbs.

Unvaccinated and maskless tradies living in LGAs of concern have been refusing to give information and running away from government inspectors to avoid fines.

These comical attempts at flouting the law have not stopped SafeWork inspectors and NSW Police dishing out more than $220,000 in fines in the past three weeks to workers on construction sites who are breaching the public health orders.

SafeWork inspectors have already issued six penalty notices but there are 21 more expected to be sent out this week.

Despite the breaches, industry group the UDIA says it’s time to ramp up capacity at the state’s worksites which are functioning at only 50 per cent capacity.

“On the weekend in the local government areas of concern we saw sites which had no QR code check-ins, no Covid safety plans and no records of worker vaccinations,” NSW Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson said.

“We received considerable pushback from a number of sites who refused to provide any information or fled from the site to avoid identification.”

Tradies are being monitored by SafeWork NSW inspectors. Picture: iStock

Inspectors visited 756 sites in 243 suburbs across the state last month.

“The construction sector is the engine room of the NSW economy but we need to make sure it’s operating in a Covid-safe way,” Mr Anderson said.

“We will have SafeWork inspectors on the road all week in the affected LGAs to make sure this is happening.”

On Thursday Police temporarily shut down an eastern suburbs building site and handed out $13,500 in fines after maskless tradies were spotted by locals.

Just after 11am officers went to the site, on Bronte Rd in Waverley, where they discovered two men were from LGAs of concern who were unable to produce evidence of being vaccinated.

Police said the workers, aged between 23 and 27, said they were unaware of the public health orders.

On Wednesday seven Sydney tree loppers aged between 25 and 61 were issued $33,000 in fines after scouring Lake Macquarie for work.

UDIA NSW CEO Steve Mann, whose organisation represents developers and the construction industry, said “broadly we are disappointed with these parties”.

“We have been doing an incredibly good job through Covid managing our sites,” he told The Saturday Telegraph.

“We do not think we should’ve ever been shut. It’s time to open up.

“We believe that we should lead the opening up of industry. We need these sites to exceed more than 50 per cent capacity.

“Some sites are at 50 per cent capacity but are having to turn away workers despite them being vaccinated.”

Mr Mann said vaccination rates for tradies is similar to the rest of the population.

The Saturday Telegraph can also reveal that since Friday, August 20, Sydney Metro has been advised of a total of 10 construction workers testing positive across Sydney Metro City and Southwest sites.

“Sydney Metro has been advised that a worker at the Pitt St site advised their employer on 27 August that they had tested positive to the virus,” a Metro spokeswoman said.

“In the event of a positive Covid case, the contractor follows the advice of NSW Health.

“Immediate contact tracing takes place and the impacted areas of the site are deep cleaned.”

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Originally published as Covid NSW: Tradies hit with more than $200k in fines over health order breaches