AN170010 – Building and Construction Industry Award
43. SPECIAL TOOLS AND PROTECTIVE CLOTHING
The employer shall provide the following tools and protective clothing when they are required for the work to be performed by the employees:
(a) Bricklayers
(b) Carpenters and Joiners
(c) Stonemasons
(i) The employer shall provide all cutting tools, except mash hammers, squares, pitching tools and straight edges up to 1.2 metres in length.
(ii) If cutting tools are not provided the employer shall pay 3 cents per hour additional to the wage rates herein prescribed.
Employers shall sharpen, in a proper manner, all necessary tools. On completion of engagement, all cutting tools provided by the employee shall be sharpened or an allowance made in lieu thereof.
(iii) All pneumatic surfacing machines and lathes shall be fitted by the employer with jet sprays or some other suitable device for keeping the stone wet.
(d) Plasterers
(i) The employer shall supply all floating rules, trammels, centres, buckets and sieves, stands for plasterers' mortar boards not less than 76 centimetres from the ground or where practicable and safe from a scaffold level shall be provided for the plasterer by the employer when requested.
(ii) Plasterers shall be provided with overalls when required to brush on to walls and ceilings, bondcrete, plasterweld or similar substances.
(iii) The approved brush and roller to perform the work in paragraph (i) of this subclause shall be provided by the employer.
(e) Special Conditions to Apply to Bricklayers Engaged on Construction or Repairs to Refractory Brickwork
Supply of overalls, gloves, boots
(i) Gloves shall be supplied when employees are engaged on repair work and shall be replaced as required, subject to employees handing in the used gloves.
(ii) Boots shall be supplied upon request of the employee after six weeks’ employment, the cost of such boots to be assessed at $20.00 and employees to accrue credit at the rate of $1.00 per week.
Employees leaving or being dismissed before 20 weeks’ employment shall pay the difference between the credit accrued and the $20.00.
The right to accrue credit shall commence from the date of request for the boots.
In the event of boots being supplied and the employee not wearing them while at work, the employer shall be entitled to deduct the cost of the boots if the failure to wear them continues after one warning by the employer. Upon issue of the boots, employees may be required to sign the authority form in or to the effect of the annexure to this clause. Boots shall be replaced each six months, dating from the first issue.
(iii) Where necessary, when bricklayers are engaged on furnace work or acid work covered by subclauses 26(o) and (p) of this award, overalls will be supplied upon request of the employee and on the condition that they are worn while performing the work.
(f) Annexure to Clause
The employee claiming the supply of boots in accordance with subclause (e), paragraph (ii) of this clause may be required to sign a form giving an authority to the employer in accordance with the following:
Deduction Form
…. acknowledge receipt of one pair of boots provided in accordance with the provisions of subclause (e), paragraph (ii) of this clause. Should the full cost of the boots ($20.00) not be met by accumulation of credit (at the rate of $1.00 per week) from …. I authorise deductions from any monies due to me by my employer …. of an amount necessary to meet the difference between the credit accrued and $20.00.
Signed …...........................................................
Dated …............................................................
(g) Civil Construction and Maintenance Workers
(i) The employer shall provide free of charge any waterproof protective clothing required by an employee for particular tasks he may be performing. Items such as gloves, overalls, basil aprons, etc., shall be provided to employees using toxic substances, bitumen, tar, green timber, second hand timber, bricks, etc.
(ii) The employer shall provide on the job adequate detergents and solvents for the removal of excessive dirt, bitumen, emulsions, paint and similar substances from the employee's person and the cost of such detergents or solvents shall be borne by the employer.
(iii) Employees engaged on road work and/or railway work where traffic is not excluded by the use of continuous barriers or fences shall be provided with a light coat or jacket with high visibility red markings so as to enhance visibility in daylight against the road or rail background.
(iv) Protective clothing provided pursuant to this subclause shall remain the property of the employer and shall be fumigated before being transferred from one employee to another and shall be in a clean and hygienic state when issued.
(h) All Employees
(i) The employer shall provide all power tools and steel tapes over six metres.
(ii) Gloves, and at the request of the employee, hand protective paste, shall be provided by the employer for employees engaged in handling hot bitumen, creosote, oiled formwork and in washing down brickwork.
(iii) If in the course of his/her employment an employee is required to use muriatic acid he/she shall be provided with protective clothing.
(iv) Working hours, a suitable grindstone or wheel together with power (hand or mechanically driven) for turning it. If a grindstone or wheel is not made available the employer shall pay to each carpenter or joiner $3.50 per week in lieu of same.
(v) An employer shall provide on all construction jobs in towns and cities, and elsewhere where reasonably necessary and practicable (or if requested by the employee) a suitable and secure waterproof lock-up solely for the purpose of storing employees' tools, and on multi-storey and major project jobs the employer shall provide, where possible, a suitable lock-up for employees' tools within a reasonable distance of the work area of large groups of employees.
(i) Plant Operators
The employer shall provide plant operators with all plant, tools and protective clothing when they are required for work to be performed by the employees.
(j) Powdered Lime Dust
(i) Employees exposed for any period greater than one hour in any shift to powdered lime dust from the spreading or mixing of powdered lime used in the stabilisation of road making material shall be supplied with the following protective clothing:
(1) overalls;
(2) wide vision goggles;
(3) respirator;
(4) boots;
(5) gloves.
(ii) In addition, the employer shall maintain at or near the work site or other place where such lime is being used, adequate facilities to enable any employee whose skin is contaminated with lime either directly or through his ordinary clothing to wash the affected area. A supply of barrier cream and hand cleanser shall be provided for the use of any employee required to handle powdered lime.
(iii) Employees engaged in carrying out lime work shall be obliged to wear the protective clothing supplied by the employer pursuant to paragraph (i) hereof.
