The ACT government is under increased pressure to relax restrictions on Canberra build sites after NSW announced its construction industry will return to 100 per cent capacity by next week.
Any indoor work on occupied apartment buildings which hadn't commenced prior to lockdown is currently banned in the ACT, unless it is an emergency.
Outdoor work on occupied residences can only commence if builders can demonstrate there will be no interaction between occupants and workers.
Master Builders ACT are petitioning the government for a change to the health direction to allow the estimated five per cent of workers excluded from current measures to get back to work.
CEO Michael Hopkins said with the NSW government providing more opportunities for the construction sector to continue working, the ACT industry is confident safety protocols could be put in place to allow for a full reopen.
"With a renovation project where there's people living in the house, certainly the opportunity for interaction between the public and builders will be greater, but not but not impossible to overcome," Mr Hopkins said.
He said cleaning of communal areas, having separate resident entries from worker entries, and setting rules around the use of shared lifts in apartment building could all be enforced.
Mr Hopkins said more people would be out of work when current projects were completed if rules weren't relaxed.
"The longer this goes on the more people in the industry this will impact," he said.
In NSW, the rule limiting construction sites to 50 per cent capacity if any workers are unvaccinated will be removed from Monday and all constructions sites will be permitted to have one person per four square metres.
Canberra builder Craig Grant was forced to stop work on a Turner apartment complex after he was told that he must demonstrate that there would be no interaction between workers and residents.
Canberra Building Services had commenced work replacing cladding on the outside of the building along with the rest of the sector on September 10.
He was forced to down tools nine days later when the ACT government advised them of a tightening of regulations which required builders to take into account any possible interaction with residents.
Mr Grant said while his employees are very compliant with health directions, the actions of apartment complex occupants was beyond his control.
He said the strata group responsible for the building was under pressure from insurers to replace the flammable material with something safe.
While Melbourne's construction industry was currently facing a two week shut down following anti-vaccination protests, Mr Grant said his employees just wanted to do their jobs.
"We've all been very fair, very clean and everyone's been keen to get back to work," he said.
