Around 300 immigration detention workers will down tools for four hours in Melbourne today in response to being disrespected and deceived by their current employer, Serco.
Last year, the Federal Government announced that Serco would no longer hold the contract to operate nine centres nationally and instead awarded it to controversial American private prison operator, Secure Journeys/ MTC.
The union representing the workers, United Workers Union (UWU), has been negotiating a greenfields agreement with the incoming contractor but in the meantime the outgoing contractor, Serco, has sought to undermine redundancies and bargaining.
Two weeks’ ago, UWU notfied of action across all nine immigration detention centres nationally, although this was postponed on the basis Serco would return to the bargaining table.
However, recent meetings between UWU and Serco had proven futile and the company had not moved from its hard-line stance. As a result workers will stop work at the Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre from 5:30am to 7:30am and from 5:30pm to 7:30pm today.
United Workers Union Allied Industries Director Godfrey Moase said Serco behaving badly showed the high risks to pay and conditions detention workers regularly faced on a change of contract.
“The workers at Immigration Detention Centres across Australia have compromised all the way through in an effort to minimise disruption, but that hasn’t been reciprocated by Serco, which has deliberately misled the workers on redundancy entitlements and refused a fair pay increase,” Mr Moase said.
“We’ve made concessions around business continuity because these workers care about the people in their charge and the community. In the meantime, we have a multi-billion-dollar company in Serco arguing over relatively tiny amounts of dollars and cents.
“It’s a huge mess and an avoidable one at that. This wouldn’t be happening if massive multi-nationals whose motivation is profit at any cost lived up to their responsibilities to their workers and the public.”
Industrial action is taking place across other detention centres in the form of paperwork bans and members will consider further strike action in the event an agreement cannot be reached.