Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / The NT's correctional service officers are about ready to walk off the job...Katie spoke with United Voice's Erina Early

Transcript

The NT's correctional service officers are about ready to walk off the job...Katie spoke with United Voice's Erina Early · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now as I understand that the territory's correctional service officers
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: are just about ready to walk off the job after
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a protected industrial action was declared successful. That's according to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the representing union and Erina Early from United Voice joins
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: me on the line right now.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Katie.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Hell are you not too bad?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Erina? Talk us through the situation as it stands with
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: our correctional officers.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie. So, yes, so you're correct. So the correctional
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: officers aren't happy with the four year wage freeze offer
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: from the government, so they've launched a protected action ballot.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: It was successful last week and they will be considering
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: doing certain actions, which will include walking off the job
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: for a period of time.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Right, So, we could end up with a situation in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the territory where our corrections officers walk off the job.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, when do you reckon that will happen? Erina, Well,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: what we're going to.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Do, KD first is start off just with the smaller ones,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: because it's not just about the four year wage freeze,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: it's about the lack of staffing levels and as you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: the crisis that is on correctional service in the nt
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: SO we're starting off with safety ones where they're not
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: going to work, where they're not operational cameras. They're going
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: to ensure that they take their breaks because often they
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: don't get their breaks due to their workfload and short starting.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: So we're starting off with those, getting the delegates to
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: talk to the media without fear of being disciplined, yep, etc.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: So they're the type of ones who are starting off with,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: and then we're going to build up towards walking off
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: the job.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I'd certainly be interested to speaking to those delegates
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: because I know a lot of people listening will think
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: to themselves in the initial instance, they just want more money.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But you've made some really important points there about safety.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Tell me about those safety concerns.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: The safety is concerns as many people would have either
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: heard on your shows well or in the media. Is
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: you've had the riots, you've had increased assaults to the
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: officers as well. They don't have enough staffing and they
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: haven't had enough starting for a considerable amount of time.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Alice Springs have not had a full staffing with thin
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: in thirty years.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Thirty years getting to a yeah, huge, So when you
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: talk about these staffing levels.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: What kind of impact does it have because you know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: for a lot of people listening this morning, they will
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: have never stepped foot into a correctional facility, so they've
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: just got no idea.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: No. So with the staffing levels, there's a certain amount
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: of officers that need to be placed on the roster
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: to ensure the safety of officers, the safety of the
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: prisoners as well, and the good running and security of
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: the prison. Unfortunately, due to having less amount of officers there,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: so thirty or forty officers are missing a day in
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Alice Springs. They can't fill them. They don't have the numbers,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: they can't recruit to those numbers.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: What kind of impact does that have on them trying
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: to do their jobs?
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I have a significant impact. And so for example, is
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: they're constantly doing more than one role. They have to
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: do the job of two or three officers as well.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Sometimes as well, the prisoners also then don't get to
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: do certain programs like education or sport or something because
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: they don't have enough stuff. Prisoners get upset, they get bored,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: they get angry, and then it could then roll into
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: like we said, like we strikes, sorry, riots and assaults
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: and stuff like that.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean just a few weeks ago we'd
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: seen or we'd heard that there was a riot in
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the Alla Springs correctional facility.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: It followed on from that court case.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: So I would imagine that you know that there are
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: some pretty serious concerns for those corrections officers.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, And they're concerned that they deal with every
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: day and Corrections executive haveard knowledge the work that their
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: officers are doing with the limited resource and they're starffing,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: so they're going to work exhausted.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Erona, Why is it so hard to fill some
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: of these jobs?
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: I think especially correctional officers from people might not think
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: it's the best job around. Correctional officers in the NT
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: used to be the highest paid in Australia. If we
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: have this four year wage free, they're going to start
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: moving down the scale. They really need to look at
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: some retention and the retraction with corrections, there's that fear
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: of the assault as well as the riots. So in
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: the last couple of years, as everyone knows, there's been
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: quite a few riots at both Darwin and Alice Spring
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: to prison Erina.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Is the government and the Minister at this stage coming
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to the table and prepared to discuss these concerns.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Look to be honest, Caddie is we've met several cases
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: with the minister with the wage free You get the conversation.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Their hands are tied. I don't really accept that we
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: actually need to address the four year wage frees because
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: it has a flow and effect to the private industries
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: as well the staffing, etcetera. They're brought in a new
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: commissioner who like every time they bring in a new commissioner,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: there's another big, expensive review, Kady, because they don't seem
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: to look at the old reviews that they've done. We
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: promised a lot and we never know everything's undelivered, So
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Yeah, there's a lot of lip service, Erina.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: There'll be some people listening this morning thinking, hang on
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a second, I thought that public servant scot that ten
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars pay increase. But do the correctional services officers
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: fall under a different agreement or what's the situation?
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, So the one that you're referring to, KD is
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: the NTPs general yep. So that's a lot of the
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: employees under the hospital, those type of areas there. That's
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: the biggest government enterprise agreement. So they actually weren't offered
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: a wage increase. It was a ten thousand dollars cash
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: bonus or I call it blood money to actually sign
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: off not getting a wage increase of four years. Correctional
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: officers have been offered the same and they refused it.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: They want to pay increase.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Well, I tell you what, it sounds like
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: this is going to be a pretty concerning situation.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Erina.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: You said that they're going to, you know, to trial
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: these other options before they get to the point of
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: striking or not going to work. But in reality, are
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: we going to see our correctional officers not turn up
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: for work here?
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: I think the direction that we're going is absolutely yes.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: We haven't met again with the enterprise agreements negotiation yep.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: So really they've got four weeks to actually come and
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: start meeting with us to talk about the correctional enterprise agreements,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: but that hasn't occurred yet.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Well, Eron, I do let us know if any of
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: those delegates want to speak to us on air. I
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: know that you know that it can be difficult for
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: them to come out publicly and really raise those concerns,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: but you know, we're talking about jobs that are incredibly
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: important ones, even like you'd said, the prisoner is not
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: being able to do those different programs. You know, we
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: want people to come out of prison better people. You know,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not angry and up and you know, and worse
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: off because because they've not actually been able to try
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: their best to learn.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: To do different things in there.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And that's what prison is about, or you know, going
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: into those correctional facilities is about. Is actually you know,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: being rehabilitated as well? Oh?
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, and as well too, Katie. I'm not sure
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: if you're aware the firefighters commenced their protected action, yeah,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: right last week. And also work is at Tamilla Dilbert.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, so there's a few going on. By the looks
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: of ash, there is a few.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Well, do keep us up to date, Erina. I always
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thank you for having your chat with
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: me this morning.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Katie, have a lovely dame you too.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: That is Erin early there from the United Workers' United Voice.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And look, I know that some people, certainly some of you,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: when you're listening, you get really upset or annoyed and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: think to yourselves alive and how to pay increase for
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: you know, for a number of years, and I'm a
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: bit the same. I think I haven't had one, but
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I do totally understand that we're in a situation now
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory where with some of these jobs,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: if you do the exact same job in another state
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and you get paid a lot more money, how on
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: earth do we think we're going to attract people to
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory to do some of these roles. And
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: then when you look at the fact that you know
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: that those correctional officers are understaffed, so they don't actually
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: have the staffing levels that they should have, it does
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: make it concerned about the safety and as eron a
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: rightly pointed out, there's been riots, there's been prison offices
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: who have been injured. We've got to make sure we
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: get these kinds of things right. And people do deserve
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: to go to work and to be safe in their workplace.