SA prisons in lockdown as officers walk out after rising violence
More than 2000 prisoners across SA will be confined to their cells for 24 hours as correction officers walk off the job for better pay and conditions. It followed a violent assault on the weekend.
AS SA Prison workers walked off the job at 7am on Monday there was not even a skeleton crew of corrections officers left to carry out basic duties to take care of inmates, their union says.
The union covering workers, the Public Service Association of SA (PSA), said senior staff would have to “get back on the tools”.
The 24-hour walkout came after stop work meetings were held this morning at Yatala Labour Prison, Port Augusta Prison, Mobilong Prison, Port Lincoln Prison, Cadell Prison, and Adelaide Women’s Prison.
Murray Bridge to Port Lincoln prison officers would continue strike action indefinitely until the state government boost their pay rates and lifts staff numbers, according to the PSA.
The union said low pay has resulted in a recruitment crisis, leading to a spike in prison assaults, including an assault at Yatala prison on Sunday, which resulted in an inmate being rushed to hospital to have metal plates inserted in his face to hold it together.
Public Service Association General Secretary Charlotte Watson said violence in SA prisons “is a direct result of poor pay and conditions which has led to a recruitment emergency”.
“Corrections officers start on $58,000 a year,” Watson said.
“Why would you work in a prison when you could earn the same amount at Bunnings?
“What would you rather do, take tradies through the latest range of Dulux paints or spend your day with crooks and crims?”
The walkout follows a Yatala prisoner being king hit into unconsciousness on November 4 and a female corrections officer being hospitalised with a broken hand on October 24 after being attacked by a metal pole-wielding prisoner.
The October incident occurred as the officer disarmed a prisoner who had assaulted another prisoner.
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Watson said the union had been negotiating pay with the state government for more than fifteen months.
She said the last pay offer the union received from the state government was not good enough because it “would fall below the safety net award again before the end of the life of the pay deal”.
A government spokesperson said “the government remains committed to good faith negotiations with PSA to achieve a new enterprise agreement for workers in the South Australian public sector”.
“The government has made clear it is committed to providing a real wage increase above the current rate of inflation, and that is reflected in the Government’s most recent offer to the PSA.”
