Anger sparked prison officers’ walkout—union

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 4

Anger sparked prison officers’ walkout —union

PA Wellington Some prison officers were “so damned angry” about their pay offer that they locked up Inmates and walked out, said a Public Service Association spokesman yesterday.

The walkout on Wednesday, the first in New Zealand prison history, came after the association’s prison officers’ group gave 14 days notice of industrial action.

The group’s chairman, Mr Shane Goodger, said the walkout was of only a small number of prison officers.

“They were so damned angry that they considered their actions, though illegal, were justified,” he said.

Officers at Paparua Prison and Invercargill's youth institution walked out alter the pay offer from the State Service’s Commission. The inmates were locked up about midday and left under the supervision of the prison superintendents and about four commissioned officers. In several other New Zealand penal institutions, stop-work meetings were held and limited industrial action was also taken at Mount Eden in Auckland, Paremoremo maximum and medium security prisons, and Mount Crawford in Wellington.

Mr Goodger said officers returned to normal duties yesterday.

A total walkout in a fortnight was possible, he said.

Prison officers were insulted by the commission’s “nil offer” of 20.1 per cent, he said. Senior prison officers with years experience wanted a 30 to 34 per cent increase on top of the 20.1 per cent State Service ajustment, said Mr Goodger.

Most prison officers were in this group and their pay would have increased from $19,467 to $25,100 a year if the increase had been approved, he said. The last significant pay rise for prison officers was in 1979, and although they received the same increases as other State servants, there had been no recognition for the changing nature of their work, Mr Goodger said.

Prison officers had no relativity with any other group but the pay increase gained recently by the police was a consideration in the claim, he said.

“We are both dealing with the same commodity — the criminal element,” he said.

A higher proportion of violent offenders, increasing numbers of psychologically disturbed inmates, and prison overcrowding had resulted in high levels of stress for officers and staff recruitment problems, Mr Goodger said.

Previous industrial action by prison officers had been muster bans, officers not accepting new inmates from the police, and limitations on the number of prisoners that officers were prepared to supervise, he said.

Action would be “much stronger” this time if there were no positive moves by the commission to meet the claims.