Build UK members led by Mace chief executive officer, Mark Reynolds, have made a request during a call with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business and Industry), Nadhim Zahawi, to ask the government to label construction workers as essential staff in order to legitimise them travelling to work.
The call follows hostility towards some construction workers, particularly on social media, for going to work, despite the fact that the government has asked them to continue working where it is safe to do so. A number of companies have even resorted to providing workers with letters explaining they are required to work if they are questioned.
Details of the request were published in the daily coronavirus update from industry trade body Build UK, which said: “Build UK and others [have] called on the government to designate construction workers as ‘essential workers’, in order to reassure everyone that they had permission to leave their homes to go to work.”
The update said the Minister for Business and Industry “recognised that companies were making some tough decisions and there had been some opposition to sites remaining open, especially via social media.”
He reaffirmed that construction sites of all types should continue to operate.
