greggerypeccary wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 9:38am:


When the Victorian government decided in late March to put private security contractors in charge of hotel quarantine in Melbourne, it was putting the lives of its constituents in the hands of an industry known for shady operators, wage theft and opaque contracting practices.

The lightning decision was made during the first alarming spread of COVID-19 and just 24 hours after the national cabinet on March 27 had decided to detain returning travellers in hotels for two weeks. From then on three private security operators – selected without a tender – would guard the people at the highest risk of carrying the coronavirus.

Recent research from the Fair Work Ombudsman said the private security industry had disproportionate levels of workplace disputes, including issues of contractors bidding down tenders to below the cost of paying employees lawfully.

Some of the quarantine contracts were sub-contracted to smaller operators, a practice that drives down wages and muddles responsibility. A former guard himself, Shah said workers employed directly by big companies typically were paid legal rates and penalties and overtime, but they would then pass off work to sub-contractors that regularly paid migrant workers flat rates of $20 an hour.

“They don’t have contracts and sometimes they don’t get paid at all,” he said. “This is an ongoing issue for the security industry.”


Andrews government accepted a tender from a NSW security firm against its own guidelines . this firm took a cut and passed on the work to a victorian firm
The review's release came as it emerged the state government had selected a NSW firm not on its list of preferred security companies to run security at nine of the hotels.

That firm, Unified Security, subcontracted out work to at least one smaller firm after being contracted.

Unified Security provided guards at the Rydges on Swanston hotel, where one of the two quarantine hotel outbreaks occurred.


The report also delved into “sham contracting” – where an employer illegally pretends an employee is a private contractor so that the worker is responsible for their own pay and conditions.

In the security industry, it means that this employee “may no longer receive employment entitlements such as overtime, penalty rates, and leave”, the review said.

Many guards in the industry, it found, were asked to work as independent contractors or were paid cash-in-hand
Registered and owned by New South Wales residents, the firm Unified  had guards working at nine of around 15 hotels used by the government to house travellers.

Unified was not on a government “panel” that allowed five firms – MSS Security, G4S, National Protective Services, SecureCorp and Wilson – to be contracted at short notice.

Unified Security, asked about how it came to be selected, said in a statement: “As Australia’s largest indigenous owned private security company, we were appointed to provide services in line with the Victorian government’s procurement guidelines.” 

The statement said any further questions should be asked of the state government, which had approved its contracting arrangements.

Bobby. wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 12:23pm:


People were already social distancing and this still happened.

I have however seen models that show if the population would practice proper social distancing, none of this cutting in front of people between them and the shelf at the supermarket or pushing past people on escalators etc, people would stay at home where they can and self isolate they're showing any symptoms, make sure they get tested and if there are any positive readings the whole household has to go into lockdown and on top of that 80+% of people countrywide wear masks when outside their house then yes, we can avoid lockdowns.

Quote:


This is true but the research has not been completed about how airborne SARS-COV-2 is, yet, although some preliminary evidence may suggest that it could be.

But do you think we're a disciplined enough people to do the above?

How many Scoots are out there that would jeopardise the whole attempts at avoiding lockdowns because they think they can have an old Western-style standoff with the virus, like the real men old?

How many people can have their gatherings without hugging their friends and keeping the proper distance apart or be trusted to keep proper hygiene standards when intoxicated?

I want us to avoid lockdowns as much as possible, but the steps we need to take in order to do that seem like a bridge too far with the SkyNews watching worst elements of our society when it comes to this subject.

In a perfect world, we would all be in this together, but some people have decided to make it their mission to be so stubborn and dig their heels in to help inflate their sense of worth and overcompensate for their masculine lacking attributes.  They've decided this is an us vs them moment and no amount of evidence, reason or common sense, unless it aligns with their views, is worth anything.

Might is right.  Those who speak the loudest must be listened to.

aquascoot wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 12:28pm:


Me?   Lol   

You're the one who made up the bullshit story.

Bobby. wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 1:10pm:



you leave horseboy out of this

KangAnon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 1:03pm:


we were told that lockdown was the instrument to avoid "overwhelming the health system".

victoria has less 4 people in ICU and 1496 ventilators gathering dust.

so they changed the goalposts pal not me

aquascoot wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 1:20pm:


It worked then.

(And there's actually 7 people with COVID in ICU)

Bobby. wrote on Jul 9^th, 2020 at 1:30pm:


All'?  No.

"Wearing a face mask decreases the risk of getting coronavirus by 65% and social distancing lowers the risk by 90%, researchers find."