Following a Melbourne construction worker’s positive COVID-19 test, the CFMEU and construction company Probuild worked together to immediately implement all safety procedures to mitigate further cases.

The employee was a cleaner on the Probuild CBD site and has not worked on any other sites since receiving a positive test result.

CFMEU Vic-Tas secretary John Setka says the existing plan implemented in early 2020 continues to work: “One of our representatives contacted DHHS on Friday to inform them of the positive case and that we had already shut down the site and commenced contact tracing.”

All workers identified as being in ‘close contact’ with the diagnosed employee will get tested and isolate whilst awaiting a negative result before returning to work. The remaining workers will return to work after the site has been deep cleaned.

The necessary procedures to ensure the health and safety of workers have been implemented, including the employment of a hospital-grade specialist cleaning company to perform a thorough deep clean.