Minister to meet prison officers

Press, 25 February 1977, Page 6

Minister to meet prison officers

The Minister of Labour (Mr Gordon > will meet representatives of the Public Service Association in Wellington on Sunday in an attempt to resolve the prison officers dispute. The day after the meeting, probation officers plan to begin working to rule.

jbeen acceptable to other centres, but the Christchurch | (officers wanted a scaled in-! crease that would give higher! pay to senior officers with greater responsibility. In Christchurch penal institutions three workshops have been closed at Paparua Priison, no more than five in-; • mates will accompany one officer on work parties — normally 15 do — a ban on ■ overtime has been imposed. . .and there will be no more i than 10 inmates to each offi- ■ cer at recreation periods. The spokesman for the • Christchurch officers said that I the restrictions were having . very little effect on the seciurity or on the inmates. The I main effect was meant to be 'on Mr Gordon, he said. 1 In other cities, prison offi-

The officers’ representa-1 tives in Christchurch do not! know what the content of the! talks on Sunday will be. and are unable to sav if the work-to-rule will continue until Tuesday, as was arranged when negotiations broke, down earlier this week. Christchurch prison officers “utterly rejected” the! award agreed to in Wellington by the sub-committee representing them through the Public Service Association. ■ The association was offered a pay increase of up to 12 per cent. A spokesman for Christchurch prison officers said last evening that the 12 per cent offer gave an average increase of only 2 per cent to each officer. The increase had

cers were prepared to accept | the 12 per cent increase: their j action had been over the Govlernment’s refusal to grant backdating to July last year. Probation officers through-; (out the country will begin; ■ working to rule on Monday. A P.S.A. spokesman said ;from Wellington that officers ■ were facing a huge workload, and were unable to do their i jobs efficiently. From Monday they would Ido only the amount of work (laid down in Justice Depart | ment guidelines. This meant ■that probation reports re- : quested by magistrates before I ; [sentencing offenders would be 1 ■ delaved, and might not be The P.S.A. is not asking >lfor salary increases at this jstage, but wants an urgent ■ staffing review.