Louise Nousratpour
Friday September 14, 2007
The Morning Star
THE TUC Congress expressed its “disgust and dismay” at the government’s treatment of prison officers yesterday after 20,000 of them walked out last month in anger over unfair pay and conditions.
Congress heard that prison officers faced court action and were threatened with jail and huge fines if they took further action over pay.
Prison Officers Association president Colin Moses, who has been in the Prison Service for over 22 years, said: “I’ve been threatened with imprisonment more than twice in the last two years.
“And, last week, we were told that we would face fines of up to £500,000 if they take us to court.”
He argued that the threats of imprisonment were a “conspiracy to get the our executives sacked and destroy our union.”
He explained that any member who spent even one hour in a cell would get the sack, as the law requires prison officers to have no criminal record.
Mr Moses went on to thank Congress’s united support for POA members’ struggle for fair pay and full trade union rights, which were stolen from them by the Tories in 1993.
GMB delegate Andy Worth slammed ministers for refusing to pay prison officers properly.
“It costs just £3 million to implement the pay review body’s recommendation of a 2.5 per cent increase,” he pointed out.
“If just one private equity boss was taxed in the same way as prison officers are, it would pay for the wage increases in full.”
Congress unanimously agreed to press the government to recognise the POA as a free and independent trade union and to demand that the 2.5 per cent recommendation be implemented for all public-sector workers.
Civil servants, health workers, school staff and council employees could stage simultaneous strike action this year unless the government scraps plans to impose a 2 per cent pay cap.
On Tuesday, Congress overwhelmingly backed calls for coordinated action, including industrial action, to defend public-sector workers’ pay.
And POA leader Brian Caton warned on Wednesday that prison officers were ready to strike again if the government continued to ignore their demands.
Mr Caton said he could not understand why a Labour government was refusing to give the POA the right to take legitimate strike action.
“We are not saying we want to go on strike, but we want the right to do that if we are being abused.
“We want mutual understanding, respect and trust,” he told delegates.
The unions maintain that public-sector workers are the victims rather than — as the government claims — the cause of inflation.
Their position has now been backed by a report from independent pay experts IDS.
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