Coronavirus: Workplace safety watchdog lays 58 charges over Victoria’s hotel quarantine program

Victoria’s workplace safety watchdog has charged the state’s health department with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in relation to the Andrews government’s initial hotel quarantine program.

Covid infections among security guards in two Victorian quarantine hotels in May and June 2020 led to the the state’s second wave of coronavirus, killing 801 people including 642 in aged care facilities, causing more than 18,000 to become infected, and resulting in a three-and-a-half month lockdown.

WorkSafe confirmed the charges, each of which is punishable with a fine of up to $1.64 million, early on Wednesday afternoon.

“The Department of Health, formerly the Department of Health and Human Services, has been charged with 17 breaches of Section 21(1) of the OHS Act, in that it failed to provide and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, a working environment that was safe and without risks to health for its employees,” WorkSafe said in a statement

“The department has been charged with a further 41 breaches of section 23 (1) of the OHS Act, in that it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that persons other than employees were not exposed to risks to their health and safety arising from conduct of its undertaking.”