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By now you probably know a handful or more people who have been afflicted with H1N1/swine flu.  Vaccinations have been in short supply nationwide, and healthy men who are physically active (construction workers) are not anywhere near the top of the list.  So then what happens when a big portion of your laborers gets sick?  You are spending all your time bidding work, just so you can get your laborers out in the field, doing what they do best.  And now that you have bid the job, you have no one to complete it, because all of your “guys” are out with a contagious illness.

Sure, you could go to the union halls, but you’re a non-union contractor. Or you could drive by Home Depot in the morning, and see if anyone there understands how to safely perform a job in your trade.  There are also plenty of out of work contractors on Craigslist who are looking for any kind of day labor they can get.  So you’re thinking to yourself, “we’re gonna be ok, we have the manpower to do the job”.  Then people start getting hurt, people who were being paid under the table so you could get the job done in the time that your bond stated you would.  And now these workers, who supposedly were trained in your trade, are making errors and delaying the project more so than if your regular workforce was performing the job after it being on hold for a few days while everyone fought the cold.  These workers are getting injured, and are not on your payroll, so the whole worker’s comp thing gets very complicated and can jack up your insurance costs over the next 3 years.  We all know how important it is to keep those experience mods under 1 right now, so you can keep your ability to bid any job that you have the ability to effectively complete, and preventable accidents are not going to keep you, or get you back “into the black”  So if you run into an issue where a lot of your key folks are getting sick, give them a few days to get better because the whole project will end up in better shape because of it.  If you or your employees have any further questions on symptoms and treatments, send them to http://www.flu.gov/know.html.  And construction company owners, if you need any help with this type of risk management or any other construction specific inquiries, head on over to www.constructionriskadvisors.com