- grandparents, aunts, and uncles working to care for one another in tight living quarters. Many within the labor force are choosing to re- main home and care for their sick and elderly family members, iso- lating themselves and the family to remain healthy.
Lastly many
provide for their families economi- cally. Tis absolute requirement to be a provider compels workers to put health as a secondary concern as many workers cannot afford to stay home sick, further exacerbat- ing the spread of the virus. Worse, some who are sick do not report symptoms for fear that they will be sent home which would impact their ability to provide. Tis then causes infection to spread among workgroups before appropriate quarantine measures can be taken.
As if material and labor issues were not enough, we also have to deal with jurisdictional challenges. Tis can relate to federal, state, county or other municipalities – or all of these at once. We are in a new era of government oversight. We may have been taught about vector con- trol in biology or in an environmen- tal sciences class. Tese classes only touched on the concerns we are now facing. Many within the ranks of civil service have had no educa- tion or formal training on how to deal with a pandemic. Unprepared for this eventuality, government at all levels has struggled. Juris-
dictions began to define essential work vs. non-essential workforce for businesses early in 2020, caus- ing delays as these determinations were made and varied from county and sometimes conflicting guide- lines left the workforce challenged to correctly interpret the ‘Orders’ of the day and limit risk and liabilities to a company.
Conflict between
federal, state, and local guidelines have only complicated these issues. protocols were constricted with a scarcity of resources relating to Per- with which to properly outfit their and outbreaks within their own ranks, municipalities experienced delays in conducting inspections and cities faced closures of build- ing inspection divisions as well as shutdown of permitting processes. Given the rampant spread of the vi- rus and the polarization within the government and citizenship, these issues have not improved substan- tially.
Municipal and non-essential busi- ness closures, along with evolving statewide orders and mandates, led to protocols being developed as workers returned to their con- struction site(s) increasing labor costs once again. All while project delays began to sharply increase due to lack of production during the temporary closures.
Now that our crystal ball has re- vealed the past, let us look at our present and local realities of con- times. Before you can start a proj- ect, construction employers need to produce site specific signage for each job and have a dedicated hand wash station(s). All fieldworkers as: mask, gloves, and glasses, and be spaced 6’ apart for social dis- tancing. Common use tools are cleaned after use, as well as on- site common use areas like storage containers, company vehicles, ele- vators, stairs, ladders, railings, etc. General Contractors are tasked to oversee the health and safety of all workers on a construction site. Tere are new requirements for hygiene breaks and daily health report logs maintained onsite and available for review. Cleaning is a constant. All of this is a financial burden on the contractor which gets passed on to the client.
Once a General Contractor starts production, per the county ordi- - be an employee of the General Contractor. Tis adds more cost.
Contractors are taking tempera- tures at the site entrance of all who enter. If someone working is found to be virus positive, the site must
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