Sydney City Marine respond to COVID-19 with operational changes

24 July 2020

Sydney Harbour based vessel repair and maintenance provider, Sydney City Marine (SCM), have reassured Defence that they are continuing to safely deliver their services during the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing some simple, but very effective changes to operations.

Director of Commercial and Defence, Warren Levin said they recognised in order to support Defence, Sydney City Marine had to quickly adapt the way they worked to continue to operate during government restrictions.

'Not only did we need to comply with unprecedented restrictions, the Defence division of our business increased from about 40 per cent to 70 per cent, as the Navy saw this as a time to focus on maintenance,' Mr Levin said.

'The first major change we made was splitting our team into two shifts, with full professional disinfecting of the yard in between, effectively reducing the risk of cross contamination to virtually zero.'

'We already employed a professional cleaning staff, but increased the level of cleaning significantly, to disinfect virtually everything our staff and contractors came in contact with.'

'In addition to operational changes staff were asked to abide by social distancing rules and wash their hands regularly.'

Staff often use personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves as part of their everyday job, which proved to be very useful for times when some staff were required to work in confined areas.

In these uncertain times, Sydney City Marine has been fortunate to offer a higher degree of job security for a workforce of about 50 people.

Sydney City Marine is receiving Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) business improvement advice and also funding support in the form of a Capability Improvement Grant.