Ministry of Justice employees who are members of the PSA will strike nationwide for two hours on Wednesday and ban overtime for over a month.
They will walk off the job between 10.30am and 12.30pm on Wednesday over what the union calls "fundamental pay issues".
"Eleventh hour meetings were held between the PSA Bargaining Team and Ministry of Justice to reach a resolution but no movement on fundamental pay issues was offered," PSA National Secretary Glenn Barclay said this evening.
"Ministry of Justice members work hard to keep the justice system working and we are seeking an outcome that values all staff and ensures they are reasonably paid - including Court Security Officers, Registry Officers, Victim Advisors, Court Reporters, Family Court Coordinators," he said.
The ministry’s own engagement survey shows that only a third of staff feel valued for the work that they do, with a clear impact on recruitment and retention issues across the ministry, Mr Barclay said.
"To put this into perspective, the Ministry offered the third lowest average salary in the public sector last year and we believe this is being worsened.
"Added to that the average public sector gender pay gap is 12 per cent but the Ministry is at 15 per cent - given the number of women employed by the Ministry is about 70 per cent this has a huge negative impact," he said.
As well as strike action this week, the employees will ban overtime, only work contracted hours of work and take common breaks from 4pm on Wednesday until 4pm on October 19 "to push for fair pay systems and a modest across-the-board pay increase," Mr Barclay said.
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