NSW Corrections officers have walked off the job at 30 prisons and hundreds of courthouses across the state, in protest over a prisoner who allegedly assaulted a guard before being bailed.
Public Service Association (PSA) workers walked out at 7am Tuesday and will not return for 24 hours.
“Our members are livid, a corrections officer gets bashed and left with life changing injuries and the guy gets released back into the community without being charged? It’s outrageous,” union secretary Stewart Little said.
The workers were forgoing a day’s pay to send a message they would not tolerate being assaulted, Mr Little said.
The worker suffered a broken eye socket, broken nose and had teeth knocked out.
The strike was prompted by the alleged attacker being released on bail for unrelated drugs charges on Monday.
Police arrested a 21-year-old man on Tuesday, and have charged him with cause grievous bodily harm to law enforcement officer reckless as to actual bodily harm.
He has been refused bail.
A police spokesperson said police began investigating on July 28, three days after the incident.
The 55-year-old corrections officer was allegedly assaulted by the 21-year-old inmate about 9am, and the officer was taken to hospital.
Corrective Services NSW initially said a decision to lay charges over the July 25 incident was a matter for police.
“Staff are right to expect that inmates who assault them in the workplace will be met with the full force of the law and we encourage staff on duty to remain at work whilst police investigate,” a Corrective Services NSW spokesperson said.
“If this assault was perpetrated on a member of the public, we would expect the perpetrator to be charged and be outraged if this did not occur.
“Why should there be a different standard for our corrections officers?”
Prisoners were locked down in their cells and prisoners with court hearings were taken back to prisons following the union vote.
The assault which sparked the strike happened on July 25 at the John Morony Correctional Centre, which is a medium security male prison at Berkshire Park in Sydney’s outer northwest.
The union says as a result of the state government’s crackdown on domestic violence offenders, serious assaults inside prisons “are up 30 per cent”.
“These DV offenders come in off the street, they’re drug affected, they’re on remand, and they cause problems,” Mr Little said.
“Corrections officers need to be backed up by the rest of the justice system and the government otherwise this strike will only be the beginning.”