Acacia Prison officers launch industrial action
Friday 28 Oct 2022
Prison officers at Acacia Prison will begin industrial action this morning (Friday October 28) after rejecting a pay offer from Serco last week.
Officers will take part in a number of actions which will last for one week. The most disruptive will include:
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Attendance for work at the gate area will be no earlier than two 2 minutes before the rostered time. (Officers usually start 40 minutes prior to start time to ensure the smooth crossover of shifts. This action is likely to cause major distribution to prisons and impact court times and appearances.)
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Completing any required Covid testing on site and not before the commencement of duty. (Covid testing at work will delay start times even further.)
WAPOU Secretary Andy Smith said the action comes after officers strongly rejected Serco’s dismal offer.
Serco has proposed a 3 per cent pay rise for this year and next, followed by a 2.5 per cent in 2024 as well as a $2500 one off payment.
“Firstly, the offer doesn’t match what officers doing the same job under the public sector will be paid and secondly it won’t come close to keeping up with the soaring cost of living,” he said.
“Acacia is our State’s largest jail. Being a prison officer isn’t an easy job at the best of times and underpaying these officers is only going to encourage them to leave the job.
“Just like our police and nurses we need prison officers to keep our community safe, they deal with the worst of our society every day and we need to respect the risk they face and pay them accordingly.
“These actions are intended to create disruption to prison operations with disruptions also likely to flow through to the court appearances across the state.
“If Serco doesn’t listen, we won’t rule out escalating the industrial action,” Mr Smith said.
Media contact: Rebecca Munro rmunro@regenstrategic.com.au