As a means to gauge the regulations being employed in-practice throughout this current lockdown, here at Structural Repairs we have conducted a survey investigating whether construction workers in the UK have been subjected to regular COVID-19 testing given the socially interactive nature of their job. The survey consisted of 600 interviewees belonging to a comparable demographic and has defined ‘regularly’ as “once or more every two weeks”.

It was astonishingly found that while construction workers have been allowed to work throughout the pandemic, and while they are frequently on-site among colleagues and in clients’ homes to conduct work, 42% of survey respondents have reported that they do not get tested regularly for COVID-19.

Other industries such as healthcare workers and teachers have been given the means to test on a regular basis. For example, according to the official gov.uk, tests have been provided by the government to schools nation-wide where pupils, teachers and their families are strongly encouraged to all be tested twice each week. The same, or similar type of action, however, has not been put in place for construction workers who likewise hold jobs which require a relatively high amount of social interaction both among themselves, and with clients.

Certain COVID-19 precautions have been strongly recommended they be put in place within the construction industry. While a long list of these recommendations can be found on the CDC’s “What Construction Workers Need to Know about COVID-19” page, none of these regulations include any form of testing, regular or not.

However, the survey we conducted likewise yielded the results that 57% of construction industry workers do get tested for COVID-19 on a regular basis suggesting that either these workers or their employers have taken the responsibility upon themselves to get regularly tested for the virus. Nonetheless, the number of construction workers not undergoing regular testing remains comparably high and of alarming importance.

This pandemic has not only hit our nation, but the entire world, in an extremely unpredictable and unprecedented way. While many national governments enforced precautions have been put in place and successfully helped save lives by keeping numbers as low as possible, overall, it is questioned whether the construction industry has been given enough consideration as an industry which is allowed to remain at work.