Campaign Update

John Welch, Secretary of the WA Prison Officers Union

The recent meetings we’ve held at Hakea, Casuarina, Bandyup, Wooroloo and Greenough have been a great opportunity to talk to WA Prison Officers Union members about the campaign.

Our trip to Geraldton was a highlight – with members taking part in a lobby of the local MP Ian Blayney. We got some great media coverage for the campaign on WIN television and in the Geraldton Guardian, so I’d like to send a message of thanks to Geraldton members for their support!

The EBA wage negotiations with government are dragging on with slow progress. The WAPOU made its claim in December and it’s only in the last few weeks that the government has provided us with the full detail of what they want from the EBA.

The WA government has offered a roll-over of the current agreement with a pay rise in line with the CPI. In essence that is 2.5% rise this year, and 2.75% and 3% in subsequent years.

Government has stated that if Prison Officers want more than that we’ll need to trade-off current conditions, and find savings. Government has offered up to 2.5% – for savings of up to seven million dollars.

I believe that Prison Officers have done enough in the last three years to more than deserve a fair pay rise without having to trade off some hard-won working conditions because it might save the Department some money.

The government should step back and acknowledge that Prison Officers have actually been saving the Department an incredible amount of money for some time now.

We are managing prisons that are grossly overcrowded – well above their design capacity, because the government has not invested in new infrastructure to support the growing prison population in WA.

The WAPOU has now written to the Minister Christian Porter pointing out how late the Department has been in providing its responses because we are concerned that we won’t be able to get an acceptable agreement by 10 June. We have asked him to intervene and allow for the negotiations to go beyond that date, so we can ensure a fair wage agreement.

Thanks to all of you for showing such support for Respect the Risk. The campaign is really starting to gain momentum and it’s heartening to see such support for our Prison Officers.