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A Jetstar flight attendant who argued he should have received a daily meal allowance for time spent in hotel quarantine with Covid because his food was “inedible” has been outed after texting a colleague saying that his dinner was “very good”.
Owen Shaun Matthews was working as a flight attendant when he flew from Melbourne to Singapore on December 29, 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic.
Once in Singapore, Mr. Matthews and the rest of the cabin crew were transferred to the Crowne Plaza Changi Hotel to complete their overnight rest period before flying back to Australia.
As part of the Covid mitigation measures in Singapore, Jetstar staff were ordered to carry out rapid antigen tests on December 29 and 31, and Mr. Matthews tested positive for a RAT on December 31 and a PCR on December 1. from January.
He was then taken to a government-run Community Isolation Center at the Pasia Novena Hotel, where he stayed from January 2-9, while his colleagues stayed at the Crowne Plaza.
Mr Matthews received three meals a day while in quarantine, but said that because his food and accommodation were poor, he should have been entitled to the daily allowance his colleagues were paid for the short time they were in. isolated in Singapore.
Jetstar flight attendant Owen Shaun Matthews argued that he should have been paid a daily allowance for the time he spent in hotel quarantine with Covid because his food was “inedible” and was discovered after he texted her a colleague who said that the dinner was actually “very good”.
The flight attendant took the matter to the Fair Work Commission, but Vice President Val Gostencnik dismissed her application on February 7.
Mr Gostencnik discovered that Mr Matthews had been ordered by the Singapore Ministry of Health, not Jetstar, to self-quarantine and was therefore not entitled to the daily allowance.
His colleagues had to organize their own food while at the Crowne Plaza, which is why Jetstar gave them an allowance, instead of reimbursing each worker for each meal, unlike Mr. Matthews, whose food was prepared for him.
Mr Matthews claimed that most of his meals were cold and “for the most part inedible”.
‘He says that for the ‘first five days it was the Asian food, which was predominantly rice, that [he] cannot eat” and that “he was finally granted western food however as [he] he was not allowed to have a knife of any kind, that too became pretty useless,” said Mr Gostencnik’s findings.
Matthews said he was as “fine as can be” in a text message to his colleague while self-isolating with Covid at a Singapore hotel in January last year. She later claimed that her accommodation was substandard.
Mr Matthews is seen texting another colleague that his room was clean
Mr. Matthews also claimed that his door could not be locked and that medical personnel entered his room without knocking at any time of the day.
He claimed that his towels and sheets had not been changed and that there was no hot water, forcing him to boil the kettle to wash his underwear.
“It also says that no ‘toiletries’ of any kind were provided and no refreshments were provided upon request,” the Fair Work report said.
But text messages from Mr. Matthews to a colleague describe a very different experience.
In a text message, he sent a photo of his dinner to another Jetstar staff member and said it was “very nice.”
‘The room is fine. It’s comfortable and it’s clean,’ she said in another message.
In a separate conversation, when asked if he needed anything, Mr. Matthews replied that he had “plenty of food” and could order to his room.
In this text, Mr. Matthews is seen telling his colleague that the dinner was “very nice”. He later complained that the food was “inedible” and demanded an allowance for the time he spent in isolation.
“I can wash my underwear and socks in the room and I’m fine,” he replied.
Mr Gostencnik’s report found that some of his complaints to the commission “do not fit comfortably” with the messages he was sending to his colleagues.
“Just as an example, Mr. Matthews’ complaint about the lack of ‘toiletries’ of any kind seems to contradict what is seen in the bathroom photograph above, with ‘toiletries’ clearly visible on the sink and on the shower,’ the report said.
Mr Gostencnik, however, conceded that Mr Matthews may have been “satisfied” with his meals and accommodation on the first day, but not generally during the week’s stay.
The commission found it reasonable for Jetstar to pay an allowance to the rest of Jetstar’s staff, rather than reimburse each employee for each meal they ate during isolation.
Despite Mr Matthews’s argument that he too would be given the allowance, given his complaints about food and accommodation, his application was rejected.