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Posted: 2021-08-07 11:00:40

Construction workers in Sydney are ready to pick up the tools with the latest announcement around COVID-19 safe workplaces.

Vaccine hesitant workers are now booking their appointments after Deputy Premier John Barilaro announced that vaccinated workers will be allowed back on site next week.

Stephen Younan, owner of a construction company from Bexley North, said he was unsure about the safety of the vaccine, but the latest announcement has proven to him booking a jab is the right thing to do.

"There's so much conspiracy theories. Made up stories, that you can't really get away from," he said.

"Yeah I was worried going out to work every day, it was a risk that I had to take to provide for my family. Now I 100 per cent want the vaccine, and I want all my guys to be vaccinated."

Mr Younan has seen a 60 per cent drop in work since the eight local government areas (LGAs) of Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Blacktown, Parramatta, Liverpool, Cumberland, Georges River and Campbelltown were locked down.

Man holds baby smiling
Stephen Younan is asking all his staff to get the vaccine to help with customer confidence.(

Supplied

)

"We're doing whatever we can in non-hotspot areas. But we have a strict COVID policy and from now on it will be tests and vaccinations because we deal with real estate and commercial premises and lots of people and we want them to have confidence that we're safe."

The changes now mean construction workers from affected LGAs must provide evidence that they have received:

  • two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine
  • one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at least three weeks before attending work
  • one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and, if less than three weeks since that vaccine was administered, a negative COVID-19 test or negative rapid antigen test in the previous 72 hours

Mr Barilaro said the move will get workers in the eight impacted LGAs back onsite, and boost the vaccination numbers the state is looking for to reopen from the lockdown.

The current Greater Sydney lockdown is planned to end on August 28.

A sign telling workers they need to get tested if they live in the Fairfield local government area.
Construction can welcome back workers who have been partially and fully vaccinated on Wednesday.(

ABC: Lara Hyams

)

"We want workers back on the tools, but we need to continue to keep this virus at bay, and so by opening unoccupied worksites at 50 per cent capacity and vaccinating workers from within those affected LGAs, we can achieve both," Mr Barilaro said.

"Construction workers from the affected LGAs will be added to the list of authorised workers allowing them to work on unoccupied construction sites in Greater Sydney if they meet the vaccination conditions."

Jordan Bourizk, 21, is one of those workers. 

He lives in Yagoona, in the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA, and was suspicious of vaccines.

"I've never really liked them, my whole life," he said.

"All my friends around me are the same, everyone is different, but there was something I don't know about vaccines."

Now with the announcement Mr Bourizk said he will be looking into his options.

"In the next few days I'll be seeing if I can get it, if it means I can work, yeah I'll get it."

construction site vaccination pic 1
Jordan Bourizk said he had been vaccine hesitant, but the announcement has him considering his options.(

Supplied

)

"Getting tested every three days has been really annoying to be honest it's a good hour I have to waste in the morning and when you're at a site and your mask slips or you take a drink everyone looks at you weird because you're from a hotspot."

The head of the Australian Construction Association Jon Davies said sites will go one step further by allowing vaccination at workplaces.

"We are working with the Department of Health to improve access by enabling vaccinations at construction sites," Mr Davies said.

"We recognise that to fully get the industry back to work we need to increase vaccination rates so that all restrictions can be removed."

For Mr Bourizk the impetus for vaccination has been the never ending lockdown.

"To be honest it sucks, if I can get out of this I will."

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