All members are advised the Melbourne Branch and Geelong Branch general meetings are cancelled until further notice due to the restrictions imposed on mass gatherings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.

To ensure affected apprentices aren’t unfairly prevented from gaining registration, the VBA has introduced a 6-month provisional plumbing registration. Plumbing apprentices are eligible for this provisional registration if they have completed their apprenticeship and the Certificate III in Plumbing and are unable to undertake the Journeyman exam due to its postponement.

A coalition of Industry Associations and Trade Unions have joined together to develop guidelines for managing the risks associated with COVID-19 on Western Australian construction sites. The guidelines will be regularly updated and made widely available within the Building and Construction Industry.

Changes to the Plumbing Regulations 2018 clarified that the routine servicing of fire protection equipment is considered plumbing work and must be carried out by an appropriately qualified plumbing practitioner. In response, the VBA has introduced four new restricted classes which practitioners must be registered or licensed under to perform this work.
Anyone performing routine servicing of fire protection equipment must be registered or licensed with the VBA by 31 December 2020. Unregistered or unlicensed practitioners carrying out this work after this date will be liable to VBA enforcement action. 

From 1 March 2020, ME will continue to offer eligible super fund and union members:· 
 An additional 0.05%p.a. discount for the life of your loan on a ME Flexible Home Loan with a Member Package or Basic Home Loan.· 
 A 2% per annum discount on the variable interest rate of ME’s low-rate credit card Frank.

All members are advised the Melbourne Branch and Geelong Branch general meetings are cancelled until further notice due to the restrictions imposed on mass gatherings concerning the coronavirus outbreak.

Your Long Service Leave account can now be accessed by a new App delivered by CoInvest.

In two separate incidents, one sprinkler fitter in NSW has been fatally injured and one sprinkler fitter in Victoria has received serious facial and head injuries caused by failures of couplings under pressure.

The Plumbers Union advise all construction members that we have altered our return to work date in our calendar for 2020.