The Victorian government has introduced a policy promoting gender equality in the construction industry.

The Building Equality Policy (BEP) has been designed to create training and employment opportunities for women through government procurement on building and infrastructure projects. The State government says that the BEP seeks to disrupt the existing gender stereotypes, norms and roles in the construction sector.  

The government’s two objectives of the policy are to:

1. create training and employment opportunities for women through government procurement on building, infrastructure, civil engineering and any other capital works projects
2. increase the targets and requirements in the Building Equality Policy (BEP) to create a more gender inclusive industry.

The BEP will be implemented through the existing Social Procurement Framework (SPF) and will have its own weighting independent of the SPF weighting. It is comprised of three actions that seek to address the structural and cultural barriers women face.

Suppliers will have to:

1. meet project-specific gender equality targets
2. engage women as apprentices and trainees
3. implement a Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) on every government funded project.

The BEP applies to larger publicly funded construction projects that meet or exceed the financial threshold – total project budget valued at $20 million or more (excluding GST) allocated over the life of the project and not the value of individual contracts. This aligns with the threshold for the Major Projects Skills Guarantee (MPSG) in the Local Jobs First Policy.

Although the policy’s official start date was 1 January 2022, The State construction policy and templates have only recently been updated to include it. The BEP will not apply retrospectively to projects that have already been contracted, or Requests for Tender that were issued before 1 January 2022.

The BEP will be subject to a transitional compliance period over the 2022 and 2023 calendar years. Principal contractors will have a contractual obligation to ensure participants in their supply chains are contributing to the overall targets across the project. From 1 January 2024, contract provisions will provide remedies for non-compliance. The State will introduce model contract clauses to reinforce a graduated approach to compliance. The government intends to manage non-compliance with the BEP over this time with a focus on education and awareness.

While this is called a gender equality policy, don’t expect to see 50% of the workers on construction sites being women anytime soon. The initial targets are much more modest. Women will be required to perform at least:

• 3 percent of the contract works’ total estimated labour hours for each trade position
• 7 percent of the contract works’ total estimated labour hours for each non-trade Construction Award covered labour position and
• 35 percent of the contract works’ total estimated labour hours for each staff position.

By way of comparison, the MPSG requires government construction projects to employ a minimum 10% apprentices, trainees and engineering cadets. The BEP focuses exclusively on gender equality whereas the MPSG focuses on trainees whilst encouraging contractors to draw from groups who are generally under-represented in industry vocational training such as women: 

Contractors are to be encouraged to use Victorian apprentices, Victorian trainees or engineering cadets drawn from groups who are generally under-represented in industry vocational training such as women, and/or who face barriers to vocational training or the workforce more generally, such as indigenous or older apprentices, trainees or cadets or those with a disability. A key resource to achieve this will be state and federal employment programs for assisting disadvantaged job seekers.

The BEP acknowledges that:

Targets alone will not address the cultural and structural barriers women face in the construction industry. However, effective long-term change will arise from setting targets at the trade, non-trade, onsite managerial/supervisory and specialist roles.

The implementation of the targets will be supported by the requirement for all tenderers to provide a GEAP, and the actions in the Women in Construction Strategy.

The BEP aligns with Principle 6 of the UN Global Compact the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. A participant in the UN Global Compact, CourtHeath seeks to raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals and the principles of the Global Compact with business and government organisations in Victoria.

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IMAGE: Used under licence from shutterstock.com

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