Qantas and Jetstar cabin crew are to take over as security guards at two Melbourne quarantine hotels linked not only to a sex scandal but also to a serious COVID-19 outbreak in the Victorian capital. State Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed that hundreds of cabin crew who are currently stood down could take over from the disgraced security firm and would be directly employed by the Department of Justice and Community Safety.
“Let’s be clear: There are very few groups of people who take safety more seriously and know and understand safety protocols and dynamic environments and the need to always go by the book than those who work in our aviation sector,” Andrews told reporters on Monday as he announced the idea to redeploy idle airline staffers.
The Victorian state government has ordered a judicial review into its hotel quarantine programme which was designed to isolate all new arrivals into the country for at least 14-days in order to contain any possible spread of the novel Coronavirus. A spike in COVID-19 infections across several suburbs of Melbourne has been traced back to private contractors who were hired by the local government to oversee security arrangements at two hotels.
There are even allegations that one private contractor had sex with a hotel guest who was in quarantine after arriving from overseas. Officials have refused to confirm or deny the allegations but Andrews said it was “abundantly clear that what has gone on here is completely unacceptable”.
The spike in cases is being taken so seriously that New South Wales will shut its border with Victoria for the first time in 100-years with hundreds of troops and police officers stationed along the border to ensure that Victorians don’t stray across into NSW.
Nearly 7,000 Qantas and Jetstar cabin crew are currently stood down with no idea of when they might be recalled to return to work. A further 1,050 will be made permanently redundant because of the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the Australian aviation industry.
Qantas previously attempted to redeploy some stood down cabin crew into temporary positions at Woolworths.
Qantas does not expect to restart international flights until early 2021, although resumption of long-haul services will be dependent on when the Australian federal government ease tough border restrictions.
