The lockdown in Melbourne's northern suburbs has led to tough questions of both the government and the security industry it relied upon.
The ramifications are now being felt across the working-class and ethnically diverse northern and western suburbs of Melbourne,genomic sequencing
A key issue, according to industry insiders, was training. Guards were being expected to work with difficult, potentially infectious people, to use personal protective equipment and have a working knowledge of infection control techniques.But for some, according to Kazim Shah, a United Workers Union organiser who has worked with Melbourne quarantine hotel guards in recent months, the preparation was severely inadequate.
More lurid rumours have also emerged, but a common story is that there was too little personal protective equipment or it was being worn wrongly or for too long; there was a lack of medical waste bins and that there was insufficient medical oversight. In Victoria, the Andrews government has moved more than 20,000 people – many from places with major coronavirus outbreaks – through the hastily constructed hotel quarantine system, guarded by three security industry players MSS, Wilson and Unified.
Some of the quarantine contracts were sub-contracted to smaller operators, a practice that drives down wages and muddles responsibility. A former guard himself, Shah said workers employed directly by big companies typically were paid legal rates and penalties and overtime, but they would then pass off work to sub-contractors that regularly paid migrant workers flat rates of $20 an hour.
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