source : the age
Unions have warned of a “tinderbox” situation in Queensland’s overcrowded, unsafe youth detention centres, as hundreds of workers walked off the job following a breakdown in wage negotiations.
Frontline youth detention workers and non-operational child safety staff abandoned their posts at Queensland’s major detention centres in Brisbane and North Queensland at 6am on Monday, beginning a 24-hour strike.
Australian Workers’ Union secretary Stacey Schinnerl said staff were demanding respect and recognition for work in volatile and high-risk workplaces. She called on the Crisafulli government to lift the present wage offer.
“This is a significant escalation in our industrial action in our pursuit of a fair and reasonable agreement,” Schinnerl said.
“Since we have last been here [on August 6] … there has been no progress made in terms of bargaining, no respect shown to this workforce.”
Comments made by Premier David Crisafulli and Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber while spruiking proposed breach bail laws on Sunday drew the ire of the unions and centre staff.
Staff safety would be compromised, Schinnerl said, by the bail legislation and further overcrowding in prisons.
“Over 500 serious staff assaults have occurred in these workplaces in the last 12 months. That is over one serious assault every single day,” she said.
“You cannot simply pile young person upon young person … into these rooms.
“The violence that occurs not only to our members who are on the frontline, but also between a young person, is significant.
“It is an absolute tinderbox.”
Data released at the weekend showed more than 6000 children and adults would have been sent to prison in the past 12 months for committing serious crimes while on bail if the government’s proposed breach bail laws were in effect.
The state government celebrated the statistics as a win for victims, and dismissed concerns jails were not equipped to absorb hundreds more prisoners.
“Faced with the choice of having extra people in a cell or extra people in your lounge room, I choose Queenslanders over crooks,” Crisafulli said.
Gerber shared the sentiment, and said the government was “doing the work to ensure that we build capacity” in prisons.
Schinnerl disagreed with their logic, and said the government’s infrastructure pipeline would only meet current demand.
“Today, we are at capacity at all four centres in this state, and there are over 40 youths waiting for a bed in the state’s watchhouses,” she said.
“This is before the Crisafulli government passes their breach bail legislation.
“We understand that Queenslanders are entitled to and deserve safe communities and safe homes. What we can’t tolerate, however, is the consequences of that legislation, where we see these facilities overcrowded to the point where our members’ safety is compromised, and that’s certainly going to be the case.”
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