Quarantine fiasco part of security firm scams

SHONKY security firms are using tax-dodging cash payments and ghosting scams to crush legitimate operators.

In what has been described as a “race to the bottom”, many of those being hired at cut-price rates are unprepared for important roles because of “tick and flick” training in which they learn next to nothing.

Leading security industry players say the kind of shortcomings identified in the Melbourne quarantine hotels debacle have plagued the sector for years.

One of the industry’s chief concerns is the practice of “tiering”, under which operators subcontract work down to others. Big firms who win work on tight margins send it down to others who, because any profit is gone, resort to telling guards to get ABNs so they can operate as sole traders at rockbottom rates.

The contract then does not cover tax, superannuation and other entitlements.

Ghosting – where work is billed out but manpower is not provided – also helps fill the gap.

Sources said “tiering” causes the loss of line control that has had severe consequences in Victoria’s quarantine hotels.

Empire Protection security director Josh Reeve said an upcoming review into the industry was welcome.

He said the kind of issues highlighted in the quarantine hotels were “endemic across the industry nationwide”.

An issues paper for the Victorian Government’s review of the industry stated there were problems with a lack of access to intelligence and criminal record history of applicants. Criminals were also able to find their way around standards.

“Concerns remain about infiltration by members of organised crime groups,” the paper said.