Victorian health officials waited months to advise hotel security guards of PPE instructions

A hotel quarantine worker claimed they were threatened with a $20k fine for raising concerns about guests - potentially infected with Covid - leaving their room.

Security guards with no knowledge of infection prevention control trained each other about crucial Covid-19 protective wear and ran the botched Hotel Quarantine program for six weeks before getting any PPE instructions.

The State of Victoria faces 58 charges of breaching the workplace health and safety act over its failed program, which allowed the virus to escape leading to Victoria’s second pandemic wave and 801 deaths in 2020.

On the first day of a five week hearing testing the evidence against the State, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday was told that Unified Security ran quarantine hotels for six weeks before getting any instructions from a government department about protective wear.

The Stamford Plaza Hotel became one of a few hotels used for quarantine purposes. Picture: William WEST / AFP

For Wilson Security and MSS Security, it took eight weeks to receive PPE guidelines.

“Up until that point the guards had been following procedures set by the security companies,” barrister Daniel Gurvich KC, for prosecuting agency WorkSafe, said.

“The training provided … varied in its content and was generally delivered by security guards appointed as supervisors.”

But Mr Gurvich said “acquiring knowledge of the virus and expertise in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) were not the usual function of security companies”.

Prior to starting work, guards had “little training” other than completing a Commonwealth government online module.

The State of Victoria faces 58 charges over its botched Hotel Quarantine program. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

The court heard former Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control president Prof Marilyn Cruickshank had given evidence that the training module applied to a community setting only, not to hotels operating as quarantine facilities.

Her evidence would be that practical training on IPC should have been provided.

The court was told that security workers were often instructed by government authorised officers to “do certain things and the feeling was it either wasn’t safe or in our scope to do it”.

Ninety per cent of cases in the deadly second wave were traced back to the Rydges Hotel. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Wilson Security general manager of regional operations Gregory Watson said one of his staff was threatened with a $20,000 fine for raising concerns about orders to take guests - potentially infected with Covid-19 - for fresh air walks.

“We had a rather overzealous authorised officer who instructed our people that fresh air walks were starting,” Mr Watson said.

“This came out of the blue, we had no prior warning.”

He said when this worker told the authorised officer he’d have to get advice, “he was threatened with a $20,000 fine for not conforming with instructions”.

“Up to that point people would stay in their rooms, then here we are being asked to escort them on fresh air walks,” Mr Watson said.

“We had no guidelines on what was acceptable, what wasn’t.”

Mr Watson said he understood authorised officers, giving directions to security in the hotels, were from the department of health, but later learned there were some from “parks and wildlife and different places”.

The State of Victoria faces 58 charges over its program, dubbed Operation Soteria after the Greek Goddess of Safety, over allegations its infection prevention and control measures failed and were inadequate, and should have been addressed and rectified sooner.

Ninety per cent of cases in the deadly second wave were traced back to the Rydges Hotel outbreak in May 2020, where six guards, a healthcare worker and Rydges employee contracted Covid-19.

International travellers wait to check in at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne. Picture: AAP Image/Scott Barbour

The further 10 per cent of cases were connected to the Stamford Plaza, where 26 guards and a Department of Health employee were infected.

MSS Security occupational therapist Charles Hooper told the court “there were challenges” getting PPE, which the three security companies were required to source themselves as part of their government contracts.

Mr Hooper said he would travel around Melbourne collecting PPE to ensure guards had enough supplies, and deliver it to a worker out the front of a hotel.

MSS Major Events Manager Anthony Bandiera was asked by defence barrister Morgan McLay whether he feared the security company or he himself could be prosecuted by Worksafe.

“I couldn’t see why the companies would be at fault,” he said, agreeing MSS had taken all the steps it could to ensure its workers’ safety, including PPE and training.

A total 29 witnesses will be cross-examined in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court over the next three weeks, with a further 27 witnesses to give evidence over two weeks in March.

The hearing before Magistrate Simon Zebrowski will test whether there is enough evidence for the State to face a trial in the County Court.