Coronavirus Australia: Westfield slammed for 'playing roulette' with lives
The owner of Westfield shopping malls has been slammed for its reaction to two incidents of employees being exposed to the deadly coronavirus.
The owner of Westfield shopping malls was sensationally blasted this afternoon for “playing roulette” with people’s lives after being accused of doing nothing about a virus outbreak at one of its sites.
Premier Investments — owner of a number of retailers including Just Jeans, Portmans and Smiggle — this afternoon released a statement slamming one of the largest shopping centre owners, Scentre Group, for continuing to operate following the enforcement of strict social distancing rules.
“COVID-19 is a deadly virus and it is unacceptable for landlords to play roulette with the lives of retail employees and customers by not doing everything they can to protect them,” chief executive Mark McInnes said.
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“We made the toughest decision to close our stores and stand down our team yesterday because we could not allow our team members, our customers and their families to continue to take the risk posed by our continued trading.
“Why are your shopping centres open when the Prime Minister has asked all Australians to stay at home and the Premier of Victoria rightly says no shopping trip is worth risking a life?”
The statement from the Solomon Lew-backed group, which also runs Jay Jays and Peter Alexander, said the actions of the shopping centre owner created a “very real” threat to its employees being exposed to the deadly virus in two incidents at Brisbane’s Westfield in Carindale.
“In both instances, when Scentre was notified, they took no action,” Mr McInnes said.
“We were made aware of these incidents by the affected customers themselves and the Queensland Health Department. We then notified Scentre, who to our knowledge took no steps to notify the other tenants, customers or the community of Carindale that positive COVID-19 cases had been shopping in the mall.”
But Scentre denied the allegations, saying the health and safety of their customers and staff was their “highest priority”, according to a statement provided to The Australian.
“In relation to Westfield Carindale, our retail partners and centre management followed the correct Queensland Health protocols,” a company spokesperson told the national broadsheet.
“The Queensland Health advice was these individuals posed no risk to any customers, retailers or employees.
“As a precaution, the relevant retailers closed their stores temporarily for deep cleaning. Centre management also conducted additional cleaning. We continue to follow the advice of health authorities.”
The war of words comes just a day after the major retail group suspended operation at its brands and stood down thousands of workers across Australia.
Mr Lew, Premier’s outspoken owner, yesterday blasted landlords across the country for not doing their bit to ease the burden on trading while the nation’s population was forced to self-isolate and the foot traffic in malls sharply declined.
He said he will refuse to pay rent for his stores until the social distancing measures were loosened, with Mr McInnes reiterating the call to arms in his statement this afternoon.
“Premier calls on everyone in the Australian community to do their part in protecting our people and our country from the devastating health and economic impacts of COVID-19 so that we can recover and reopen as soon as possible,” he said.