Contractors will be required to pay a hefty sum for failing to abide by new Covid-19 construction safety measures. Police are required to monitor construction sites in Florida's Miami-Dade County, for example, and will shut down any site that fails to enforce distancing requirements.
According to The Lien Zone, distancing requirements include attending morning meetings 10 at a time (and holding them outdoors), not sharing tools, leaving work boots at the site, and staggering shifts. Most importantly, construction employees are required to keep six feet apart.
If a group of workers is found together in a 100 square foot corner during lunch break, or even to examine a possible conflict, The Lien Zone reports that a lockdown is likely. The project will be closed in its entirety, even if the non-compliant conduct was caused by a subcontractor.
The offending subcontractor may additionally face lawsuits from other subcontractors whose livelihood has been affected by the shutdown. According to the article, such numbers will exceed a company’s ability to pay.
To avoid non-compliance, the contractor is required to prepare a detailed set of protocols for Covid-19 mitigation. This includes consequences for employees’ and subcontractors’ non-compliance, and has all employees and subcontractors sign off on it.
In addition the contractor deep cleans, in accordance with CDC requirements, the area or areas where the non-compliance took place. It also agrees to permit more frequent site inspections for a period of [xx] weeks to verify compliance.
Source: The Lien Zone
