Industrial action underway at prison for young offenders

Staff at the Wandoo Reintegration Facility will escalate their protected industrial action from this morning to highlight a dispute over pay and conditions with employer Serco.

They are gathering at the entrance but not walking through the gatehouse until a couple minutes before they are due to start their shifts.

This will bottleneck many administration processes and have an impact on other activities throughout the day.

Custodial and non-custodial staff under the coverage of the Community and Public Sector Union/Civil Service Association and the WA Prison Officers’ Union will also commence indefinite bans on processing prisoner telephone call applications as well as visits to prisoners.

CPSU/CSA branch assistant secretary Rikki Hendon said the industrial action was being taken because negotiations with Serco for a new enterprise agreement had broken down.

“Serco is offering inferior pay and conditions to Wandoo employees compared to employees at the Serco-run Acacia Prison and Department of Corrective Services-run prisons,” Ms Hendon said.

“We are asking that Serco respects the risky nature of working in a prison and provide fair and equitable pay and conditions.”

Low-level industrial action started on Saturday with employees breaching the uniform policy by wearing GIVE US A FAIR DEAL stickers on their shirts.

“Members of the two unions have voted to gradually escalate industrial action to send a stern message to Serco that the current wages and conditions offer is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

“The Barnett Government has already altered the scope of the business model offered to run the young adult prison, making it more appealing to the private contractor and now Serco wants to offer an inferior wages and conditions package – it’s not acceptable.

“This is another in a long list of reasons why governments should not privatise functions in their corrective services portfolio.”

Additional notes: In 2012 the Barnett Government closed down the former Rangeview Remand Centre for juveniles and redeveloped the facility before giving it to Serco to establish the Wandoo Reintegration Facility.

Originally the facility was retrofitted for 18 to 22-year-olds but was expanded to include offenders up to the age of 28 years.

In 2012 the government signed a $171million, 15-year deal with Serco to run the facility.