Serco Australia Pty Limited & the Community and Public Sector Union (NSW)

 

Serco Australia Pty Limited operates the Clarence Correctional Centre, a maximum- and minimum-security correctional centre for male and female offenders accommodating up to 1,700 inmates.

This correctional centre opened in July 2020 with Serco Australia having a 20 year management contract. This contract was initially worth UK £1.5 billion or AUD $2.6 billion to the Serco Group.

The company is a subsidiary within UK-based Serco Group plc, a group whose revenue grew by 7% to £4.9 billion in 2023.

The SERCO Clarence Correctional Case Officers Enterprise Agreement in place since 2021 is due to expire on 3 March 2025. The Community and Public Sector Union (NSW) is gearing up to meet with SERCO bargaining representatives to start bargaining for the next Enterprise Agreement.

So it will be interesting to see how this plays out given past complaints about pay and working conditions, including dangerously low staffing levels and alleged prisoner assaults on staff. Which march alongside past allegations of poor prisoner health services and assaults/brawling among prisoners.

Note: There was a death in custody reported at Clarence Correctional Centre in April 2024. This is not the first death in custody - there being two reported by the media in 2022. As to the actual number, there is no publicly available information of which to assess this particular correctional centre.

Serco-managed Clarence Correctional Centre to open on 1 July 2020

Image: Tweed Daily News

The est. $700 million purpose-built 1,700 bed Clarence Correctional Centre will open in thirteen days time and will hold both men and women.

This NSW prison at Lavadia in the Clarence Valley will be managed by the U.K. based multinational Serco Group.

Serco's contract has an estimated total value to the corporation over a 20-year term of approximately AUD$2.6 billion.

North Coast Voices readers may recall that the Serco Group has on numerous occasions been the subject of allegations concerning corruption, mismanagement, privacy violations and human rights abuses at its facilities and by its staff.

There will likely be more than a few fingers being crossed in the Clarence Valley that Serco through its subsidiary Serco Australia Pty Limited will not behave improperly or unlawfully when prisoners begin to fill what is being touted as the newest and largest correctional facility in Australia.