Corrections officers voting to strike, joining firies, paramedics and some health staff in industrial action

Corrections officers voting to strike, joining firies, paramedics and some health staff in industrial action

by | Mar 14, 2022 | News | 0 comments

Northern Territory corrections officers will vote on whether to strike, or take other action including not transporting prisoners to court, during negotiations over their enterprise bargaining agreement, after being given approval by the Fair Work Commission to hold a ballot to take protected industrial action.

They join NT firefighters, St John Ambulance paramedics, and Danila Dilba Health Service staff (excluding doctors and nurses), in having either voted to take industrial action, or already engaging in up to a second round of action, United Workers NT president Erina Early said.

On Thursday, FWC vice president Joseph Catanzariti approved the protected action application by the United Workers’ Union on behalf of NT Corrections staff, with the department not opposing the application. Corrections staff can now vote to give themselves the choice to take protected industrial action during the enterprise agreement negotiations.

Ms Early said the ballot opened on Friday and closed on March 25, with the union taking the action to allow Corrections officers to walk off the job, because members were not happy with the four-year pay freeze proposed by the Gunner Government.

“Corrections members want a wage increase, and they want to ensure minimum staffing levels to ensure the safety of officers. The staffing levels issue is particularly important,” she said.

In the proposed electronic ballot, Corrections staff would vote on 20 different types of protected action, which can be undertaken concurrently, including unlimited amounts of work stoppages lasting for one, two, four, or 12 hours, or refusing to work unless wearing union shirts or other union branded clothing, such as hats.

Other options include not taking prisoners to court, refusing to provide any form or level of assistance to Youth Justice, refusing to escort prisoners to and from the NT Police watchhouse, or to staff the watchhouse, but they noted Corrections staff did not intend to take industrial action that would threaten, or endanger life.

The Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment bargained with different public servant groups separately, and Corrections officers are not on the general agreement, so the government will enter into negotiations with them this year.

Ms Early said the firies started their protected industrial action on March 10 – while the ballot to take action for Danila Dilba got up on March 10 and St John Ambulance up on March 4 – and would now be taking additional action.

In mid-December a majority of NT Public Service employees under the general agreement voted to accept the Gunner Government’s wage freeze policy, which will see them being paid a controversial $4,000 annual lump sum “bonus” in exchange for having their wages frozen for the next four years.

But the new enterprise agreement was thrown out by the Fair Work Commission on March 4, after it was incorrectly filed and did not include details of extended leave entitlements that workers had voted on.

The FWC’s Full Bench made the decision, which will likely result in the Commissioner for Public Employment Vicki Telfer re-filing the agreement or, in the worst case scenario, sources said, could mean another vote by government employees.

Ads by Google

Ads by Google

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

0 Comments

Submit a Comment