CPSU has been in negotiations with the State of Victoria for the past seven months to improve your pay and conditions of employment through a new Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement and has worked constructively with Corrections Victoria around improvements to mental health and well-being, workplace consultation, and access to flexible working arrangements.  There has been no progress, however, on any measures that would materially improve our pay and conditions of employment.  CPSU negotiators are frustrated and angry to report to members that negotiations are at a standstill.  The State of Victoria (SoV) refuses to budge from its pay offer of 2 per cent.  SoV refuses to match for Correctional Officers their pay deal with Police. 
I believe this to be an real insult.  You can be damn sure Correctional Officers will not allow the Victorian government to devalue us.  

Any politician who marches with us before the election, and then cuts us off at the knees after the election is not a friend.
Any politician who calls for higher superannuation, but refuses to provide it to their own workforce is not a friend.
Any politician who bemoans wage theft, but refuses to fix the problem in their own backyard is not a friend.
Any politician who pockets between 6.42% and 11.8% pay rise for themselves in a year but only offers 2 per cent to their workforce is not a friend.

For seven months CPSU has been fighting for a fair pay rise and to improve:

But the response from the Victorian Government to each of these claims is the same: there is no money.  

They've loaded up their own pay packets and been generous with other public sector occupations but not ours.  This is not good enough.

In recent years we have seen the continued increase in prisoner numbers, alongside an unrelenting increase in the complexity and difficulty of the prisoner cohort. We have seen the continued explosion in unsentenced prisoner numbers with all of the difficulty and disruption that brings.

While this has been happening, we have seen the Government trying to reduce costs and find efficiencies in ways that cut away at staffing numbers and shift coverage, and threaten your health, safety and well-being.

I encourage all members to speak with your delegates and local group executives and/or contact CPSU Organisers Alison Bessell or Clay O’Brien directly.

Finally, we are at a point in negotiations where we need to be as strong as we possibly can be.  I ask all members to encourage any colleague who isn’t yet a union member to JOIN THE UNION TODAY.