Advocates for prisoners and the union representing correctional officers are calling on the government to reach an urgent pay agreement to help end the statewide prison lockdown.
Prison staff started a 24-hour “stop-work” on Monday morning, putting all seven government-run South Australian jails into lockdown.
On Tuesday morning, a rally was held at Yatala Labour Prison, where it was decided the strike would continue for another 24 hours.
Public Service Association (PSA) SA general secretary Charlotte Watson said it would be a rolling industrial action, with members to determine whether strike action will continue every 24 hours.
“This rolling industrial action by our members will continue until they reach a resolution that is satisfactory in respect of their pay and conditions in the workplace,” she said.
“They are desperate for a resolution. These workers need a pay rise.”
Charlotte Watson is urging the SA government to come to the table with a “satisfactory” pay agreement. (ABC News)
Ms Watson said the union was concerned about assaults within the prisons, which have “a direct link between safety in our prisons and the wages of these employees”.
Sam Narroway is the director of Prisons and Outreach for Second Chances SA, a not-for-profit organisation that supports people in prison and their families.
He said he wanted to see the lockdown end “immediately”.
“Second Chances completely agree that officer safety is paramount inside the correctional centres,” Mr Narroway said.
“There probably needs to be some pay increases there because the work they do is quite hard at times and can be very difficult to maintain.”
He said the lockdown was also negatively impacting prisoners’ mental and physical health.
“They’re sitting in a very small 3 by 2 metre cell,” he said.
“It’s also going to be affecting their rehabilitative and reintegrative opportunities.
“These people are probably scheduled in for courses, court, visits, contact with their family. All this stuff will be suspended while the prisons are in lockdown.”
Sam Narroway says the lockdown affects inmates’ physical and mental wellbeing. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
He said rehabilitative services in particular were critically important in ensuring the prisoners could safely reintegrate into the community.
“I think that this needs to be resolved immediately and that prisons need to be opened again immediately,” he said.
“There hasn’t been a statewide lockdown in quite a long time across South Australian prisons, so it is a significant event that’s occurring at the moment.
“We urge the government to negotiate and settle with the PSA and with the correctional services officers to be able to ensure a safe working environment for them, but also a safe living environment for the prisoners.”
Ms Watson said she heard inmates continue to have access to food and showers, but the lockdown has “an impact on everyone”.
“We don’t feel good about this industrial action; this is the last resort for us,” she said.
An SA government spokesperson said the correctional services department has prepared “detailed operational plans to manage the lockdowns which will have a significant impact on detainees”.
“Protracted lockdowns have significant impacts on prisoners including the cancellation of family visits, non-essential medical appointments and court appearances, impacting victims of crime,” they said.
“The decision to place prisons into lockdown is entirely the result of the PSA walking off the job at short notice and leaving essential services unstaffed.”
Wage negotiations continue
The government spokesperson said it was committed to providing a “real wage increase” above the current rate of inflation.
“The PSA’s demand for a 20 per cent wage rise over only 18 months is not consistent with responsible budget management and is significantly out of step with the wage rises most South Australians see in their own workplaces,” they said.
Craig Bates says union members are prepared to continue the industrial action. (ABC News: Dean Faulkner)
Correctional officer liaison and vice president of the PSA SA, Craig Bates, said the government needed to “come back with a tangible offer as soon as possible”.
“A lot of these correctional officers are prepared to keep going indefinitely,” he said.
“I would like the government to come back with a realistic pay offer up to 20 per cent, which to some people, they might think it sounds greedy, but these workers have had a 6 per cent pay increase over six years in total. So that’s 1 per cent a year.
“With inflation the way it is, that’s why they’ve fallen so far behind and we’ve now got correctional officers interstate earning 30 per cent more.”
Dale Atkinson says prison officers are in “dire need” of extra funding. (ABC News: Dean Faulkner)
Dale Atkinson from the Operations Security Unit in the Department for Correctional Services said officers were facing dangerous working environments every day and could be earning more “working at Bunnings or doing a night shift filling shelves at Woolies”.
“We don’t have the numbers anymore to respond to our incidents and keep us safe,” he said.
“Across the state, we’re all feeling exactly the same pressures and we’re all going through the same things.
“I’ve been around for 16 years nearly, and I’ve never seen anything like it — for the whole state to walk out, it’s pretty dire. We’re in very dire need of some extra funding at the moment.
“We need better, we deserve better.”
