Premier Retail CEO Mark McInnes has put shopping centres on blast after two of the Group's retail staff were exposed to positive COVID-19 customers in a Queensland shopping centre.
The action comes after Premier Retail shut its retail stores across the country and stated it intends not to pay any rent.
The business became aware of two incidents of positive COVID-19 cases shopping at Scentre Group’s Carindale mall when it was notified by the affected customers themselves and the Queensland Health Department.
McInnes said that the business didn't witness any action when it notified Scentre of the confirmed cases.
"This issue is very real for Premier Retail – we have had two incidents in Scentre Group’s Carindale mall where our team members were exposed to COVID-19-positive customers, and in both instances, when Scentre was notified, they took no action.
"We were made aware of these incidents [and] we then notified Scentre, who to our knowledge took no steps to notify the other tenants, customers or the community of Carindale that positive COVID-19 cases had been shopping in the mall.
"COVID-19 is a deadly virus and it is unacceptable for landlords to play roulette with the lives of retail employees and customers by not doing everything they can to protect them," he said.
McInnes added that Premier would not "play roulette" with its employees' lives and so decided to close its stores.
"We made the toughest decision to close our stores and stand down our team yesterday because we could not allow our team members, our customers and their families to continue to take the risk posed by our continued trading.
"We agree with the statements made by the Prime Minister and the State Premiers and our Chief Medical Officers that everyone must limit their movements to the maximum extent possible in order to protect each other and our fellow citizens.
"At the same time, we know that the economic impacts of the closures forced by COVID-19 are real, especially for our team members who we have had to stand down.
"They are feeling the economic pain, as are all of the hard-working Australians who have found themselves inexplicably standing in a Centrelink queue this week," he said.
To demonstrate to its staff that the business supported those that had been stood down, McInnes said its senior staff as well as other business leaders have taken pay cuts.
"Many senior business leaders are setting the right example by suspending their pay and entitlements during the shutdown.
"The Premier Board and senior management team have done this so that we share the pain and show our team that we are all in this together.
"Australian shareholders are feeling the pain through the decline in values of their investments, as are millions of Australian superannuees.
"Many companies have also suspended their dividend payments to preserve capital, and Premier has extended its own dividend payment as a prudent measure."
The CEO then went on to call into question what support the shopping centres are offering to their retailers and how they are responding to the pandemic.
"In response to comments made by some of the leading retail landlords today in today’s newspapers, about their commitment to Team Australia and the need for sharing of economic pain, I would ask them to answer the following specific questions:
• Why are your shopping centres open when the Prime Minister has asked all Australians to stay at home and the Premier of Victoria rightly says no shopping trip is worth risking a life?
• What OHS systems and medical systems did you put in place to ensure nobody entering your shopping centre had coronavirus for the safety of retail employees who are asked to serve them?
• What actions have you taken with the relevant health authorities to screen customers entering your shopping centres?
• Where you have been made aware of infected customers and workers entering your shopping centres, have you taken all steps to advise all your tenants, all your customers and the entire local community of the risk?
• Knowing the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 health restrictions on trade, what financial assistance have you offered your retail tenants to keep people employed in the short and long term?
• Have all landlords across Australia reported to their customers and communities all instances where COVID-19-positive reported cases have visited a shopping centre?
"The answers to these questions will determine whether any retail landlord has the right to talk about Team Australia.
"Premier calls on everyone in the Australian community to do their part in protecting our people and our country from the devastating health and economic impacts of COVID-19 so that we can recover and reopen as soon as possible.
"We wish all Australians safety and health," he said.