Queensland’s peak electrical industry body the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) has welcomed a plan by the state government to establish a building and construction code of practice which is due to commence on 1 July 2013.

The Queensland Government is seeking feedback from the construction and building industry on the new code and in its response, which was sent to the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice The Hon. Jarrod Bleijie, NECA said it supported its implementation but had some suggestions on the transitional arrangements based on NECA’s experience when a similar code was introduced in Victoria.

“NECA fully support the code and the establishment of a Building and Construction Compliance Branch within the Department of Justice and Attorney-General to improve efficiency on Queensland building sites and provide Queensland taxpayers better value for money,” says NECA Queensland executive director Mick Logan.

“With respect to the transitional provisions NECA’s experience is that due to the fact that our members’ Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBAs) are made in the federal jurisdiction at the Fair Work Commission it is not always a straight forward matter to amend agreements to comply with new state arrangements such as the proposed code.

“NECA suggests that the transitional arrangements allow that any EBA entered into prior to the commencement of the code on 1st July 2013 be allowed to run its course and be deemed to comply with the code until its expiry date. New EBAs would naturally have to comply with the code after its creation for contractors to be eligible for state work.”

Mr Logan said that taking this approach would avoid unnecessary costs and disruptions on building sites during bargaining periods necessarily having to be brought on early in order to make amendments to EBAs to make them comply by the 1st March 2014 under the current Government proposal.