Workers’ frustration at Immigration Detention Centre provider Serco has boiled over into a national stoppage by detention centre workers and a threatened last-minute court fight to bring the essential workers back to work.
Today Immigration Detention Centre workers across nine immigration centres nationally exercised their right to take protected industrial action as talks with outgoing contractor Serco once again broke down in the face of Serco’s intransigence to meaningfully deal with the workers’ issues.
Serco has repeatedly failed to address workers’ claims for redundancies as they leave Serco’s employment, and start a new greenfield agreement with incoming immigration detention centre contractor Secure Journeys-MTC.
On Sunday afternoon United Workers Union received correspondence from the Australian Government Solicitor warning it intended to seek Fair Work Commission orders to end the protected action, although as of late Sunday evening no hearing had been held or determination reached.
As a result today a total of an eight-hour stoppage in Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre is taking place at 4.30am to 8.30am and 4.30pm to 8.30pm, matching two four-hour stoppages at eight other Immigration Detention Centres nationally. The stoppages are an escalation from earlier two-hour national stoppages in the morning and evening that took place on Friday.
“It’s a stinging indictment of Serco that a multi-billion-dollar corporation is unable to deal fairly with workers who are seeking legitimate redundancies in a contract changeover,” Allied Industries Director Godfrey Moase said today.
“We need Serco and the Federal Government to understand these issues need to be resolved with a great deal of urgency.
“In some centres, the contract transition is occurring on March 6 – less than two weeks away – and detainees, workers and the community can’t afford to be impacted by a continuing struggle with the outgoing contractor.
“It’s a debacle of Serco’s making that workers are facing threats of being dragged through the courts.
“The likely application shows once again our members are essential workers, and are crucial in keeping immigration detention centres running as safely as possible.
“The application also shows our members are being treated with no respect by Serco. Workers have felt forced to take industrial action as a last resort to resolve issues that should have been resolved at the negotiating table.
“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 a massive multi-national like Serco, whose motivation is profit at any cost, lived up to its responsibilities to its workers, detainees and the community.”