Senior Corrections management to begin industrial action for the first time in NT history
Senior Corrections officers have started industrial action for the first time the Northern Territory’s history, with 45 prison managers accusing the NT Government of holding their entitlements ‘to ransom’.
The Northern Territory’s Corrections bosses have accused the government of holding their entitlements “to ransom”, declaring work stoppages and banning on-call duties for the first time in the prisons’ history,
Community and Public Sector Union NT secretary David Villegas said from Monday around 45 Corrections facility managers would take industrial action in response to the NT Government’s latest enterprise agreement offer.
“They’re taking industrial action for the first time in the history of Corrections in the Northern Territory,” Mr Villegas said.
Mr Villegas said they had voted to approve work stoppages for up to a couple hours, banning on-call work and other protected actions for the 45 managers of the Corrections facilities in Darwin, Berrimah, Alice Springs, the two work camps and the Darwin city ‘police prison’.
Mr Villegas said this was the culmination of 201 days of unsuccessful negotiations with the NT Government, with the offer currently on the table leaving the senior Corrections workers “incredibly incensed”.
“It’s pretty extraordinary, I’ve never seen an offer like this in my time as a union official,” he said.
Mr Villegas said the NT Government offer split the agreement in two, with some of the benefits conditional on workers accepting the Corrections Commissioner's request for a 24-hour roster.
“Firstly, it’s holding those entitlements to ransom,” he said.
“Secondly it’s the increase to a 24-hour roster that the Corrections Commissioner is pushing.”
Mr Villegas said this would allow the prisons to roster on management onto “unsociable hours” saying, “that’s going to affect their work-life balance”.
“(And) they were proposing to change all of their classifications, which they’ve now reneged on,” Mr Villegas said.
He said while the government had offered better entitlements in the “Part B” conditional agreement those were “seriously problematic”.
Mr Villegas said the major boost was not a substantive increase to the prison manager’s base pay, instead increasing an embedded overtime allowance.
“Unlike most workplaces that are actually reducing hours that people need to work, they’re looking at pushing them to do even more,” he said.
“They’ll basically be required to do those extra hours every week.”
A Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment spokesman said splitting the enterprise agreement offer was a “recognition of the future operational requirements and need for contemporary management” of the prison system.
He said the offer in “Part A” offers a 3 per cent pay increase, along with improvements to existing entitlements, with an optional “Part B” offer under a 24-hour roster.
He said Senior Officers had up to 12 months to opt-in to the Part B arrangements, rather than a previous offer which would have forced all staff to transition to the secondary conditions within six months.
“The emphasis on allowances, flexibility, and overtime reflects the operational realities of correctional facilities, where staffing models must support safe and continuous operations outside of usual business hours and days,” he said.
The OCEP said measures had been put in place to minimise the impact of protected industrial action in the prisons.
“We respect the union members’ right to take protected industrial action, which are a valid part of enterprise bargaining,” he said.
“OCPE will continue to work with the unions in good faith to settle the negotiations.”
Mr Villegas said the Corrections managers were also concerned about what appeared to be moves towards privatisation in the prison system, with the use of G4S for hospital and court transfers and watch house management.
But primarily he said these concerns were “compounded” by the enormous pressure placed on the prison system over the past 12 months.
“They’ve been under an immense amount of pressure — which they have been dutifully helping with the entire time,” Mr Villegas said.
“They see themselves as managers and professionals and they want the prison system to function.”
“(But) they’re hundreds of prisoners over capacity, Berrimah Prison is looking to open up a 1000 beds — that’s the goal.”
This is five times the bed capacity the Corrections Minister envisioned for the former decommissioned prison in December, with Gerard Maley saying Berrimah would have only 200 beds under the Corrections Masterplan.
“At this stage it’s the chiefs taking action, and the chiefs are very incensed and I know that the Correctional officers’ staff don’t feel very differently,” Mr Villegas said.
Mr Villegas said the Corrections bosses were also concerned about the broader NT public service proposed changes, particularly removing the two-year redeployment register.
He said this was a redundancy protection, in which the NT Government had to actively seek another role within the public service for two years, “because there’s always work to do here”.
“They want to remove that, which raises serious concerns about what their plans are for the broader public service,” he said.
He said Monday marked the start of the access period, in which around 14,000 Territory public servants had a week to consider the NT Government’s finalised first offer in the enterprise bargaining period.
Mr Villegas said voting on the Corrections bosses’ enterprise agreement would open from Friday, September 12, and would close on Wednesday, September 24.
The Corrections Department has been contacted for comment.
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Originally published as Senior Corrections management to begin industrial action for the first time in NT history
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