Jetstar’s flight attendant demanded he be paid to isolate in Singapore after claiming the food was bad

A Jetstar flight attendant who argued he should have been given a daily meal allowance for the time he was in hotel quarantine with Covid because his food was “inedible” was caught after texting a colleague 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.

On arrival in Singapore, Mr Matthews and the other cabin crew were taken to the Crowne Plaza Changi Hotel to finish their night’s sleep before flying back to Australia.

As part of Singapore’s Covid mitigation measures, Jetstar staff were ordered to carry out rapid antigen testing on 29th and 31st December with Mr Matthews testing positive on a RAT on 31st December and a PCR on 1st January.

He was then taken to a government-run community isolation facility at the Pasia Novena Hotel, where he stayed from January 2-9 – while his colleagues stayed at the Crowne Plaza.

Mr Matthews was given three meals a day during the quarantine but said as the food and his accommodation were substandard he should have been entitled to the daily allowance his colleagues were being paid for the short time they were isolated in Singapore .

Jetstar flight attendant Owen Shaun Matthews argued he should have been paid a daily allowance for the time he spent in hotel quarantine with Covid because his meal was “inedible” after he texted a colleague to be Dinner is actually “very nice”.

The flight attendant brought the matter before the Fair Work Commission, but Vice President Val Gostencnik dismissed his request on February 7.

Mr Gostencnik found that Mr Matthews had been ordered to quarantine by the Singapore Ministry of Health and not Jetstar and was therefore not entitled to the daily allowance.

His co-workers had to fend for themselves at Crowne Plaza, so Jetstar gave them an expense allowance rather than compensating each worker for every meal – unlike Mr Matthews, whose meal was prepared for him.

Mr Matthews claimed most of his meals were cold and “mostly inedible”.

“He says that for the “first five days, the food was Asian and consisted mainly of rice [he] can’t eat” and that he was “finally allowed to eat western food after all [he] was not allowed to have a knife of any kind, that was pretty pointless too,” said Mr. Gostencnik.

Mr Matthews said he was “as good as he could be” in a text to his colleagues when he was isolating with Covid at a Singapore hotel in January last year. He later claimed his accommodation was substandard

Mr. Matthews texts another colleague that his room is clean

Mr Matthews also claimed his door could not be locked and medical staff entered his room without knocking at any time of the day.

He claimed his towels and bed linen were not changed and there was no hot water, forcing him to boil the kettle to wash his underwear.

“He also says that no ‘bath amenities’ or snacks were provided upon request,” reads the Fair Work report.

But text messages from Mr. Matthews to a colleague describe a very different experience.

In a text message, he sent another Jetstar employee a photo of his dinner and said it was “very nice”.

“The room is fine. It’s comfortable and clean,” he said in another message.

In a separate conversation, when asked if he needed anything, Mr Matthews replied that he had “plenty to eat” and could order to his room.

This text features Mr Matthews telling his colleague that the dinner was “very nice”. He later complained the food was “inedible” and demanded compensation for the time he spent in isolation

“I can wash underwear and socks in the room and I’m fine so far,” he replied.

Mr Gostencnik’s report found that some of his complaints to the Commission “did not sit well with the messages” he was sending to his colleagues.

“Just as an example, Mr. Matthews’ complaint about the lack of any ‘bathroom amenities’ of any kind seems to contradict what is shown in the bathroom photo above, with ‘amenities’ clearly written on the sink and in the bathroom too See are showers,” the report says.

However, Mr Gostencnik acknowledged that Mr Matthews may have been “satisfied” with his meals and accommodation on the first day, but overall not during the week-long stay.

The commission found it appropriate that Jetstar paid an allowance to the other Jetstar employees, rather than reimburse each employee for every meal they had eaten during isolation.

Although Mr Matthews argued that he too would receive the allowance, his application was dismissed given his complaints about the food and accommodation.