Health and Safety in Public Prisons

Over the past couple of years I have kept you informed of the apparent reluctance of the Department of Corrections in general, and PPS in particular, to accept that CANZ is a key player and stakeholder in the development and application of H&S policies and procedures within prisons. We have gone to extraordinary lengths in our efforts to convince them that we are a vital member of the partnership required pursuant to the provisions of the ACC Partnership Programme; we have even enlisted the help and support of ACC senior management, but your employer still refuses to budge!

This extraordinary degree of stubbornness even extends to the requirement to develop an agreed Health and Safety Plan pursuant to the provisions of the amended Health and Safety in Employment Act. This Act requires that the parties engage in an attempt to develop an agreed Health and Safety Plan and provides general principles to aid us in our efforts. Unfortunately, PPS steadfastly ignores all attempts to progress this issue and simply continues down a track that appears to do no more than meet the administrative requirements of ACC Partnership accreditation.

As continued accreditation guarantees the Department the continuation of a hefty annual reimbursement from ACC, I’m sure you will understand why that issue remains firmly at the top of their priority list. However, we are far more interested in the practical application of the intent of both the Act and the Partnership Programme, and that is continuous improvement in workplace Health and Safety.

In our efforts to achieve this, CANZ submitted an extremely practical, uncomplicated and eminently workable draft plan (it is based on a CTU-recommended approach) to your employer in November of last year. We met to discuss this proposal and respond to questions of clarification in December and, with the exception of the juvenile posturing of a minority of participants, it seemed to be generally acceptable. We were assured of a response before the end of the year.

Since that time we have approached your employer, both orally and in writing, on several occasions in an effort to make progress on this very important issue, but our efforts have been unsuccessful. The Department in general, and PPS in particular, have ignored all approaches in respect of the development of an agreed plan, yet they continue to pursue their own agenda in terms of unilaterally developed workplace H&S meetings and the circulation of personal policy documents and agendas. As I’ve previously stated, this looks less and less like a genuine attempt to improve Health and Safety and more and more like an attempt to ensure the continuation of the annual ACC reimbursement.

Accordingly, CANZ’s position is clear! We will not cooperate with PPS in respect of their unilaterally developed and singularly subjective H&S proposals - and this includes workplace Health and Safety meetings – until such time as your employer complies with the legal requirements of the H&SE Act in terms of the development of an agreed H&S plan. This means that any CANZ members in attendance at workplace H&S meetings will not be there in the capacity of CANZ representatives. Even more importantly, any suggestions opinions or recommendations they put forward must not be considered as representative of the official CANZ position in terms of workplace Health and Safety.

Your National Officers have given me a mandate to take this issue to the Employment Relations Authority, as it is our contention that PPS is currently in breach of our Collective Employment Agreement, and I am in the process of doing that. In the meantime, it is imperative that all CANZ members make it abundantly clear to your managers on site that we are in dispute over this issue and we will not be participating in site H&S meetings in our official capacity of CANZ delegates and/or representatives.

It must be said that there are some Departmental representatives in management positions who accept and support CANZ’s position and would be only too happy to progress the matter. Unfortunately, there appear to be others with little practical knowledge or ability in H&S that are hell-bent on pursuing there own agenda and equally hell-bent on excluding CANZ from the process. Accordingly, it is time to introduce the expertise and objectivity of others.

As always, I will keep you informed on progress.

Regards,

Brian Davies
National Organiser