Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / United Workers Union NT secretary Erina Early claims the Humpty Doo fire station has been closed as a cost-saving measure

Transcript

United Workers Union NT secretary Erina Early claims the Humpty Doo fire station has been closed as a cost-saving measure · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We were due to catch up with my next guest
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to talk about some of the issues that we are
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: seeing out at the Holtz Prison when it comes to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: corrections offices, and we are going to talk about that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in just a couple of moments. But what we have
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: learned this morning is that there is indeed a fireban
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: in place and a fire weather warning for the Darwin
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and Adelaide River fire forecast area. But what we are
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: also hearing this morning is that the Humpty de fire
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: station isn't open due to staffing issues.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Now joining me on the line right now is erinor.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Early She is indeed, well, the secretary of the United
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Workers Union.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Erina.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: How are you? Yeah? Not too bad?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Erin? I, firstly, I want to just talk about this
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: situation with the Humpty fire station being closed. What is
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: your understanding of what's going on this morning?
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: So we've been advised by members the station has been
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: closed because management haven't been able to steal open time.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: And so how come they've not been able to fill
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: over time.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Well, that's a good question, Katie, because I hear that
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: management have turned around and also the Chief Minister have
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: said that because firefighters are callding sick, but they haven't
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: actually exhausted all their availabilities to backfield, so they haven't
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: put recalls. It haven't rang around fiery to say can
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: you come in at all? This is a cost saving
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: thing to shut the fight humpty do?
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, because the Chief Minister said that it was a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: situation this morning where it was because yeah, because there
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: were firefighters who were sick. So you're saying that's not
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the case.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: No, absolutely not. So there's no fighters there. They have
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: not been called at all available to perform.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Look how many how many fieries are we talking here, Erona,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: because I guess some people will be thinking, is someone
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: playing funny buggers here? Is?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: You know what's going on? No?
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: No, it's just it's not even that many firefighters at all.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: But for them to shut down humpty do and then
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: remove all the additional firefighters that are meant to be
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: available because it's high danger is the only reason they
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: would do this is because they are cost cutting.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Well, I am going to make sure that we catch
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: up with the Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: get their take on this, you know, eron or I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: know that the main thing that people are going to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: be concerned about is whether you know the people of
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the rural area are safe and whether there's backups.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I guess which.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming they'll be able to tell us, But you know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: what's your take.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, the first priority is the safety of the people
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: the rural but also safety of the firefighters as well.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: But the safety of firefighters isn't a question here. It's
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: about the fire service not being honest about the real
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: reason why they've shut down humpty and then basically stopped
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: or the additional enhanced servicing out to the rural there,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: because no way should the fire service allow this to
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: happen at all. They should be doing everything in their
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: means to ensure hump do you do? And the rural
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: people out there have got the best fire service coverage.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get my head around with the
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you know, with the rosterring or with having to call
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: people in and do the like the overtime. So you're
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: saying that they're cost cutting, so they're not calling those
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: people in because they don't want to pay the overtime.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, this is all about money, all right.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I suppose I'm a bit perplexed because I would think
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to myself that or that they'd have to do that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: most days anyway, if you know, if they're having to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: fill those rosters.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: That's correct. But we don't know what memos come across
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: the chief fire officer's death today.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: All right, well i'll see if we can. I'll see
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: what detail we can get.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Erina, there seems to be a lot a lot of
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: union action, I guess you'd say this morning. I know
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that you obviously are not part of the union, the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: education union. That's you know, with the schools going on
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: strike on Friday, but but yeah, what's the go for Friday?
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Do you have much of an understanding?
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Yes, So the teachers around the Northern Territory are going
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: to be going on a four our workstoppage. They're not
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: happy with the wage freezers. So Michelle, the president of
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: the au n T, is getting organized and as you know,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: the bellot got voted up last week. So the teachers
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: are basically sending a clear message to the anti government
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: they're not happy about the four year wage free What.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Did you think of the Chief minister's comments that she
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: thought the timing was interesting, she said on the show,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: with me just a short time ago with the by
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: election on the weekend.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: Look, it could have been a reason from the AEU,
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: but they're not a f to the Labor Party at all.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: So I think basically any time is the government is
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: going to call it a bad time. But workers have
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: had enough, and especially the teachers.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I know plenty of parents listen to the show, They'll
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: be thinking to themselves, you know, why are our teachers
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: not going to work on Friday?
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Absolutely anything to come when it comes to these work
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: stobbages through the protected action. That's the purpose of them
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: is to cause an impact to the anti government and
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: unfortunately it is going to impact territories now.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: She did also say that they are going to be
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: reviewing this situation with the with the pay freeze Erona,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and that you know the lock. She acknowledges that the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: cost of livings obviously going up. I think all of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: us are certainly feeling the pinch. Is that good enough
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: from your perspective? Does the government need to take some
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: real action here?
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Oh, they absolutely do, Katie needs to take some real action.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: That's the first that we've heard about the government is
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: looking at reconsidering the wage policy and the wage free.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I think if they moved on the wage free you'll
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: see a lot of these angry public sector workers basically
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: storing their protected action that we can really engage in
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: productive and efficient enterprise agreement negotiations.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Now, Erina, can I ask you about the actual reason
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: why I got you on the show this morning, and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: that is about the very serious situation that we've got
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: out at the Darwin Correctional Center at Holts. You know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: we spoke last week to John Lawrence SC about the
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: concerns that he, as a lawyer obviously has or as
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: representing people that are in that prison has. But Erina,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: what's the situation right now at the Darwin Prison from
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: your perspective when it comes to those correction staff And thanks.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Katie, We can't say too much because of there are
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: security reasons, security issues. I need to ensure the safety
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: of the office as well as the prisoners aren't at risk.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: But there has been some schedule outages over the last
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: couple of weeks. They're doing a service of the system,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: they're at the prison, but due to these outages, they
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: have caused some issues where basically for a couple of hours,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: correctional officers haven't been able to have certain access to
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: certain systems, which has caused a lot of problems with
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: these problems. Last week, the health and safety representative basically,
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: we nearly had twenty to thirty officers walk off the
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: job because they really feed for their safety. But to
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: the credit of management, they acted on this quite swiftly,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: which officers appreciated. But it came to a lot for
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: the officers to consider to walk out and work health
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: and safety.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: And so they're not walking out at this stage.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Their concerns have been dealt with.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: At this stage, they're being dealt with. But each day
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: that they have these outages and if there's any issues,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: it is something the officers seriously have to consider because
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: they have to ensure their safety as there were some
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: assaults last week as well on officers.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: There was an assault on officers last week.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: Two officers were assaulted last week.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Are they okay?
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: They're okay. They both had to go to hospital for checking,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: but they're okay. But the other officers within one minute,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: one minute, there were forording officers there to assist and
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the prisoner was detained.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: All right, that sounds like a pretty scary situation. Aeron
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: are the staff out there feeling okay about being at work?
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Are they feeling like there their safety concerns are being dealt.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: With, You've got yeah, it's a high and low's Katie.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: So often you hear me say management or try and
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: trying their band. But they are trying with what they're
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: working with with these outages. So a health and safety
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: representative of the union, delegates are working entirely to be
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: sure that officers' voices are being heard, that they're safe,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: and if there is any issues, they're working directly with management.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: All right, erin early we are going to have to
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: leave it there. I appreciate your time this morning, Thanks
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: for speaking with me.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you, thank you too,