Youth detention workers strike, leaving skeleton crews on staff

Queensland youth detention workers walked off the job on Thursday, citing safety risks and leaving skeleton crews to manage the detainees.

Nearly all workers at the Brisbane and West Moreton Youth Detention Centres in Wacol, the Wacol Youth Remand Centre and the Cleveland centre in Townsville left their posts just after 9am.

Detention centre workers are currently in negotiation with the government for a new pay and conditions deal, with wages a sticking point as inflation soars.

Australian Workers Union national vice-president Mark Raguse said workers had been held hostage and stabbed at the centres.

“These workers have been assaulted over the past 12 months 387 times,” Raguse told Nine News.

The union also told Nine that detainees had been making threats to workers’ families and claimed to know their personal details.

The impromptu strike ended just before 3pm Thursday after nearly six hours of negotiations between the management and the union.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles said workers had told him the centres were overcrowded and understaffed.

“This government changed the laws to lock up more children, but they did that without having a plan to safely accommodate them in our youth detention centres and to keep our workers safe,” he said.

In a statement to Nine, Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said the strike was a classic union move.

“Unions employing tactics like this ahead of EBA negations isn’t a new concept,” she said.

The government sought an urgent hearing at the Industrial Relations Commission on Thursday afternoon to check the legality of the strike, which the union claimed was sparked by an assault at the Townsville centre on Wednesday night.

The Youth Detention Centre Enterprise Bargaining Agreement expires at the end of July.