On 1 July, all Victorian worksites in the building and construction industry must register and display their Service Victoria QR Codes, and must ensure that all workers and visitors to any sites register via the Service Victoria QR Code app.

Your site QR codes must be displayed in a prominent location at the entry point of sites and where it is practical for people to check in.

Making sure workers and visitors to any site are registered, will allow contract tracers to quickly identify where people have been, to minimise the spread of the virus and potentially contain any COVID-19 outbreak.

Your COVIDSafe work plan must also be updated to include the use of the Service Victoria QR Codes.

A reminder that members should be using the Victorian Building and Construction Industry Agreed Industry COVID-19 Guidelines (Revision 13) to ensure they are minimising and managing the COVID-19 risks on site.

For our members specialising in renovation work, you must register your individual projects using the Service Victoria QR Code and have that QR code displayed in the home, so workers and subcontractors can check into the site.

This will help ensure accurate records of site attendance, and is in line with the direction from the Chief Health Officer that if you can check in, you should check in.

Currently, an exemption exists for our members engaged in maintenance work at private residences, however, please ensure your team is keeping full details of all sites they attend in a day, and that these can be easily accessed if needed.

To register your business - including multiple project sites - please click here.

It should be noted that it is not acceptable to be use any alternative QR code systems to the Service Victoria QR Code, nor are there any approved program interfaces (APIs) to link outside programs to the Service Victoria QR Code system.

You must use the Service Victoria QR Code as part of your COVIDSafe work plans.

It is important to understand that if a business that is required to keep electronic records is found without the free Service Victoria QR Code app in place - or is not requiring customers to check in - they may be issued with a $1,652 on-the-spot fine for non-compliance, and may be issued with an improvement notice at the same time, to ensure the non-compliance is rectified.

A business may also be prosecuted in court for non-compliance.

QR codes and a vigilant approach to checking in, are crucial if we want to keep our industry open for business, and we urge all members to make sure they are compliant as of 1 July.

If you have questions regarding your business or your projects and the use of QR codes, please don’t hesitate to give our team a call on 03 9411 4555. As always, the MBV team are here to help.