Second job ban for WA coronavirus quarantine hotel workers

Workers in West Australian quarantine hotels will be banned from having second jobs from Monday.

A man in quarantine at the Four Points hotel in Perth speaks with a friend standing on the street. Picture: AFP

Workers in West Australian quarantine hotels will be banned from having second jobs from Monday, as the government continues to change its systems in light of the state’s recent snap coronavirus lockdown.

WA Premier Mark McGowan announced on Wednesday that the government had struck an agreement with the four companies currently providing security services to Perth’s nine quarantine hotels. Those workers will now receive a 40 per cent pay rise as part of the deal.

The issue of second jobs for quarantine workers came to the fore after it emerged the security guard who contracted the highly contagious UK strain of the virus had been moonlighting as a rideshare driver. While the man had not worked any rideshare shifts while contagious, Mr McGowan said the lack of restrictions had caused community concern.

Victoria barred hotel security staff from having second jobs last year following a review into the failure of its quarantine systems.

The WA government had previously said it had not instituted a ban on second jobs as there was nothing to stop those workers from mingling with the broader community.

The new conditions will apply to cleaning and catering staff in all WA quarantine hotels.

“Obviously people working in hotel quarantine still have lives, so they still go to the shops, still go to schools with their children, they still might visit their parents. All of those sorts of things are difficult to stop,” he said.

“But the second job aspect, which we know was a concern, that ends as of Monday.”