Security guards were accused of 'leering' at nurses and 'hitting on' staff at the Rydges on Swanston hotel during Melbourne's hotel quarantine program in May, an inquiry hears.
Security guards were accused of intimidating nurses and "hitting on" staff at the Rydges on Swanston hotel during Melbourne's hotel quarantine program in May.The hotel quarantine inquiry is investigating what went wrong in the program in Victoria
Among the hundreds of pages of documents tendered to the hotel quarantine inquiry, emails between government bureaucrats outlined "very serious concerns" about the behaviour of Unified Security staff and subcontractors. Guards employed or subcontracted by Unified were also accused of helping themselves to food in the hotel's commercial kitchen. Hotel staff became so frustrated they set up a table to block the kitchen door, the complaint said.
Staff at DJPR, who oversaw security contracts during the hotel quarantine, talked about plans to end Wilson Security's work less than a month into the program after several complaints.The hotel inquiry heard on Thursday how Wilson, Unified and MSS were hired quickly, as bureaucrats rushed to set up the hotel program in late March after the Federal Government ordered the states to put returned overseas travellers into mandated quarantine.
In one incident, a guard slipped a note under a returned traveller's door which said: "Hey hun, add me on Snapchat".The chief executive of Global Victoria, an agency within the DJPR, said there had been "significant issues with Wilson from day dot"."Their bad behaviour is now significantly impacting us. It's just not cool."
On Thursday, the inquiry heard evidence from DJPR director Claire Febey, who was unhappy Victoria Police did not play a more active role in guarding quarantined guests.Emails highlighted an incident where a hotel quarantine guest escaped their room and made a dash for the lobby at the Crown Metropol hotel at 3:00am on March 30.
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