Security guard in Melbourne’s bungled hotel quarantine program claims she was hired on a WhatsApp group

Melbourne’s bungled hotel quarantine program has been hit with another explosive claim after a security guard claimed she was hired over WhatsApp.

A security guard for Melbourne’s bungled hotel quarantine program claimed she was hired through a WhatsApp messenger group.

The explosive fresh claims were aired on the ABC’s 7.30 Report on Tuesday night, where security guard Shayla Shakshi spoke out about the botched scheme.

“I was hired on a WhatsApp group and I just got told that you need to be here at this certain time and you‘re going to dress in a certain way and this is your pay rate and that’s it,” Shakshi said.

“We didn‘t get any training when I got there. We had to put a mask on and gloves on and that was it. It was really like, ‘OK, how do I wear a mask? How do I sanitise?’”

Shakshi has not been the only security guard to blow the whistle on clear failings in the State Government’s hotel quarantine program.

More than 30 virus cases can be linked to the Stamford Plaza hotel.

Another guard, identified only as George, broke a gag order to tell the Today show he received only five minutes of training before being tasked to one of the quarantine hotels.

“And that was the PPE and everything, the box and dice and then we were sent up to your level,” he said.

“Every hotel quarantine has subcontracting happening and that’s the way the companies are making money out of this,” he said.

The State Government has been able to dodge questions about hotel quarantine program as the matter is currently being probed by a judicial inquiry.

Premier Daniel Andrews is confident the judicial inquiry will deliver the right answers. Wayne Taylor/NCA NewsWire

The inquiry was launched by the State Government after it was revealed that protocol breaches by security guards overseeing hotel quarantine had led to outbreaks in Victoria.

Retired judge Jennifer Coate is overseeing the inquiry, with senior assisting counsel Tony Neal.

The inquiry heard on Monday there was evidence that many if not all of the current cases of coronavirus could be linked to the hotel outbreaks.

Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Monday the inquiry was needed to “understand exactly what has gone wrong in that hotel quarantine program”.

“I am confident that process will give us the answers that we are each entitled to,” he said.

“What has gone here is completely unacceptable to me and unacceptable to all of us but the best thing to do is to have that proper understanding of exactly what has gone on.”