Nearly one in three construction workers faces losing their jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the $40 billion sector employing 10 per cent of the country's workforce.
While essential projects, such as the rebuild of Christchurch Hospital, have been given the go ahead, 95 per cent of construction has ground to a halt.
“We will end up with redundancies, and we'll end up with companies going into liquidation,” Construction Steering Group's Dean Kimpton said.
One of the country’s largest construction companies, Fletcher Building, has mostly stopped work, including on the beleaguered Sky City Convention Centre.
Its staff's pay will also be slashed by up to 80 per cent, with executives today agreeing to take 30 per cent pay cuts.
“Our survey showed that about 30 per cent of construction sector workers might lose their jobs within three months if conditions don't change. And actually, a lot of the advisory services, so the engineers, the architects, the surveyors and so on, would be at risk within six months,” Infrastructure New Zealand’s Paul Blair said.
A Construction Steering Group had already been set up to handle the problems being faced within the sector.
The group has since worked alongside Government to come up with a three-stage plan to keep the industry viable - including ensuring companies are paying their bills - amid the lockdown.
“The money will flow through the economy and into the lives and the families that need to receive it,” Mr Kimpton said.
The construction industry is backing the four-week lockdown, with hopes work can restart once the country’s alert level goes back down to level three.
"Some of the easiest work to get going is the maintenance work, so with few vehicles on the roads, resealing when it needs to occur will be an outstanding opportunity,” he said.
The Government has promised to give companies the green light on maintenance projects as soon as possible.
With widespread job losses nationwide, workers could also be brought in from other industries to help with the smaller projects.
“Reskilling and moving people around geographically and across skillsets is a really important challenge,” he said.
However, other Government support is also needed.
“We need to suspend some of the red tape around the Resource Management Act; we need accelerated procurement; we obviously need to get funding into people so they have the confidence to start consumeing again,” Mr Blair said.
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