The Government yesterday announced what type of work would resume in an Alert Level 3 situation, and construction and forestry type companies were mentioned as being allowed to operate if lockdown is lifted.
Whether the country does move out of Level 4 next week will be announced on Monday.
The co-founder of KB Contractors said he employed about 60 staff who had all stopped working during the lockdown apart from a few required for emergency drainage work.
The company usually carries out maintenance and drainage work.
"We’re surmising we do go back on probably Thursday but to try and get things organised between now and Thursday ... wow," Mr Read said
He said the company had several "reasonably sized" projects in the works it hoped to get back to.
"It is going to be a bit of a logistical nightmare.
"They’re all reasonably vital jobs ... it’s not as if we’re just doing fill-in stuff or stuff that can just wait until later.
"Logistically ... it’s a matter of getting our team together, contacting all of the principals involved on the assumption we’re going back on Thursday or Friday or whatever day. If it doesn’t we’ve got to go back to those people and start again."
He said he would not force staff to come back to work but those who did return would be getting full pay.
Staff not working had been getting the wage subsidy topped up to 80% of their usual pay.
The company was going to treat the workplace like it was still in lockdown, Mr Read said.
A meeting would be held in the next few days and health and safety would be at the centre of it, Mr Read said.
"What you do in the morning when you come to work ... or do you go straight to the workplace in your own car, which will probably be the best option.
"So they then hop on our suitable equipment, sanitise it, do the job, hop in their car and go straight home."
Forestry workers who have not been working in lockdown will be allowed back under Level 3.
Gamble Forest Harvesting director Tony Gamble said getting back to work would be a relief for his staff and they were ready to go.
"There’s a lot of cashflow pressure when you’re not working so to get working again is good."
He was frustrated not to be able to operate during lockdown, because the nature of the work kept it safe from possibly spreading Covid-19.
"In my business we don’t have anybody working shoulder to shoulder anyway ... they’re all sitting in cabs and that isolation’s not a problem."
He had paid all his staff their full wages with the help of the wage subsidy but "whether we could sustain that if it carried on for months would have been a problem".
He said they were "looking good" to be ready to work by Thursday thanks to work done by the Forest Contractors Association and forest owners putting Government-approved protocols in place.
"We can tick all those boxes. There’s just going to have to be a bit of planning around staff movements, in other words travel to and from work and likes of the hand sanitiser and keeping machines cleaned."
Operators would not share machinery — they would stick to their own equipment, Mr Gamble said.
