THE Community and Public Sector Union has backed down on some of its planned stop work action after the GEO Group proposed to reduce officers’ wages by up to 63 per cent based on the proportion of the day each staff member was working.
The CPSU has also revealed that a document was sent out by Fulham Correctional Centre to union members outlining how long officers should take to complete tasks in an attempt to justify the proposed pay cuts.
A prison officer who has been employed at the Correctional Centre for nine years and wished to remain anonymous, said management was proposing to dock pay by 63 per cent on some days.
The officer said there was no doubt an increase in staffing levels was required at the facility. He said there were times when there were just 35 staff a day to manage more than 800 prisoners, when ideally there should be 70.
Fulham Correctional Centre general manager Troy Ittensohn said that with 11 union bans now in place at the centre, there was “no alternative” to reducing wages based on the proportion of the day each staff member was working.
“This will lead to pay cuts of between 40 per cent and 60 per cent for each prison officer,” he said.
Mr Ittensohn said the centre had contingency plans in place to handle all bans planned by the CPSU, with wage reductions to begin today when the new bans are introduced.
CPSU representative Andrew Capp met with Fulham Correctional Centre union members on Wednesday night, and said the union would lift the bans “that would have a significant cost impact on our members.”
For more read Friday’s Gippsland Times.
