Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Master Builders' Dave Malone about vax numbers in the construction industry

Transcript

Katie spoke with Master Builders' Dave Malone about vax numbers in the construction industry · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is just after nine twenty and we know that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the vaccine mandate has well and truly kicked in. Joining
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: us on the line is Dave Malone from Master Builders,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the chief executive. Good morning to you, Dave.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: How are you not too bad? Dave? How did that
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: mandate roll out on the weekend go?
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: It's been an interesting response, to be truthful, We've been
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: doing a straw pole this morning trying to work out
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: what's happened. You know, for some companies they're fully vaxed
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: and it's business as usual. Some companies have lost a
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: few people.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: There's a few that have self assessed.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: And said that they actually don't need to be vaccinated.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: And then we've seen a few signs on doors now
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: where people are saying to vulnerable people, please contact us
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: before you look to come inside our business. So it's
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: a real cross section of different responses to the mandate.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So what's ago with the ones that have
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: said that they they've done an assessment and they don't
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: feel that they need to be vaccinated, Well, basically.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Gone through they look at the type of work that
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: they do, sort of people they come in contact with,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: and they've decided that based on that, they don't believe
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: they need to be vaccinated, and so that'll be an
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: interesting little issue to watch, But that's what expects what
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: is expected under the health direction. You know, people are
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: to self assess and make a decision.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And what about them with those others that you'd mentioned there,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: You know that they've put a sign on the door
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: basically saying, if you're vulnerable, you're going to have to
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: get in contact with us on this number.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: It's interesting, isn't it. I suppose what you see in
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: this situation is that people are responding in the way the.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Best suits their business.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: We certainly didn't provide that notice to people, but again,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: business owners and managers are within their rights to work
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: out how they do business.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: And clearly some companies have decided that's the way they'll
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Well, it'll be interesting to see how it sort of goes.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Have you got any idea at this point in time
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the percentage of workers in the industry which have decided
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: not to get vaccinated or remain unvaccinated.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: That's the crucial question for us, Katie.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: As we've talked about before, workforce is an issue, and
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: as we head towards the wet We want to get
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: as much work done as we can, So we'll go
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: out to our members this afternoon to try and get
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: a sense of what sort of impact we've seen across
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: the industry. If I was to take if I was
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: forced to take a stab today, I think it's somewhere
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: between seven and ten percent of our workforce that hasn't
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: been vaccinated, and that will put some pressure on us
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: we move forward.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what kind of pressure is it going to put
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: on some of our local businesses because as you just
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: pointed out, and as you and I have discussed before,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: we know that there has been some issues with the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: workforce and you know, not being able to fill some
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: jobs as it is.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: The key is the pinch points that we've talked about before,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: those critical people across our industry that you know, if
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: they're not working, then projects slow down or they stop.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: So that's part of what we've got to find out
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: over the next week or so. More people got vaccinated
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: than we expected, so you know, the issue might not
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: be as big as we first feared. But you know,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: as I talked to people this morning, and as our
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: guys talk to people as well, it's clear that there's
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: been a real cross section of responses from people and
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: that will mean a slightly smaller workforce going forward.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would imagine that there was you know that
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: there was kind of quite a bit of feedback over
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the course of the weekend. Were you surprised then that
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: it sounds as a high volume all quite a large
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: number obviously did go out and get vaccinated.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: At one level, I pleased.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Another level, you know, we were taking a lot of
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: phone calls, not just from members, but from individuals in
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: our industry. You know, young men and women for example,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: they were working their way up to last Friday, and
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: you know that they were trying to work out whether
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: they would get vaccinated or not. I suspect that what
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: we've seen is as the deadlines come, people have said,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: you know, I need to get my pay packers basically,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: so people have gone and got vacked.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, Dave, there was a lot of conjecture on the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: weekend about whether public servants or refuse to get the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: vaccine would be stood down on full pay. As I
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: understand that there is a forty eight hour grace period.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: What impact or what was the reaction from industry on this?
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: You can guess what the reaction was. Yeah, they've had
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: businesses right across the territory have had the pedal really hard.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: And I always have this picture in my head of
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: you know, those really small businesses where mum and dad
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: run the business of a nighttime after they put kids
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to bed, and they've had to get across all the
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: complexity of employing people and deal with their workforce. When
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: the government makes the rules and then says it's struggling
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: to deliver on time, you can imagine how industry responded
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: to that. They you know, they chuckled a bit, but
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: they are also pretty disappointed.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: It's good to see that the numbers are.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Much less than were first forecast, and we're not talking
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: about anywhere near the number of people we first were.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: But you know, business will look at it and say,
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: we've suffered a fair amount of cost here, and there's
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: other people being paid not.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: To go to work.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Thankfully, it looks like it's not going to last for
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: long and it's not that many people.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from what I can gather, you know, the Chief
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Minister's Office has said today that the reality is that
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: they've got that forty eight hour grace period and then
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: within the public service if they're not able to be
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: redeployed or moved into another role, that they are going
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to be stood down without any kind of pay. Obviously
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: fully fully stood down. But I mean, does this whole
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: situation where there's a grace period for some and not
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: for others really demonstrate that sometimes the public service and
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: what happens for the public service is very much out
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: of touch in comparison to the private sector.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: I think up front, what it shows is that employing
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: people in Australia is a really complex task. We've talked
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: previously as well about the fact that no matter whether
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: you're the public service or the smallest business in Catherine
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: or tenor Creeker Our Springs for example, to comply with
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: the Work Health Act, the Fair Work Act, any other
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: contracts that you have in place, and you've got a
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: whole bunch of notice periods and grace periods attached to
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: employment as well. I think, you know, what we're seeing
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: with the government is exactly what you see in the
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: private sector too, which is the challenge of managing all
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: The one thing is, though the private.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Sector took the view that Friday was a deadline, they
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: had to be ready by then, you had the government's
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: taken a little bit longer. Dave.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: There were some questions sort of coming through to us
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: here on Friday, some people wondering whether some of our
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: larger contractors may have received exemptions on some projects which
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: were deemed to be sort of critical projecting projects. Is
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that the case, so.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Katie, as far as I know, the answer is no,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: And there's certainly been no indication from anybody that I've
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: spoken to, but there's any exemptions whatsoever. What I will
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: say that we always joke in our industry is that
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: if there's no rumor by lunchtime and someone's job to
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: make it up. You know, people rang me with those
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: same stories. I find the companies involved they categorically deny
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: any of that. The authorities denied as well. I think
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: it's just part of the revermal that goes around our
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: industry in particular.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Dave Malone from Master Builders, we always appreciate
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: your time. Thank you very much for having a chat
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: with us this morning and giving us a bit of
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a better gauge really on how things are looking for
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: our construction and building industry today as that mandate really
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: takes effect.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Have a great day, Katie, you too.