A guest and staff at Rydges Hotel in Carlton in April.Credit:Penny Stephens
The guard was hired over the WhatsApp messaging platform by Sterling Security Group. He toldThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald that he was paid between $18 and $24 per hour,sometimes in cash,and was not informed that some of the people he was guarding were infected.
The guard claimed no alcohol-based sanitiser was available at one hotel job and one of his jobs was to accompany potentially infected people onto the hotel roof for exercise.
"I was hired one night before when quarantine starts in hotels. All guards who worked in these hotels didn't have proper PPE[personal protective equipment] training,no induction,nothing,"he said.
"Security guards used to eat together and hug each other. When I start working in Rydges on Swanston,I didn't know that all the guests living in rooms are confirmed COVID patients. Guards were instructed to take these people for walks on the rooftop walking area and guards just wear a mask and share lifts with these people."
Other casual guards have complained that another subcontractor did not pay them.
He also claimed that,after the state government announced its inquiry into hotel quarantine,the guards were handed a confidentiality agreement requiring them not to divulge any information about"the affairs of SSG"or their clients.