Overview
- A snap stop‑work strike on Thursday left court docks empty across the Illawarra and prevented audio‑visual links that bring inmates into Wollongong Local Court, forcing bail hearings, sentences and mentions to be postponed.
- The industrial action was launched in response to the NSW government’s plan to retire four Victorian‑era maximum‑security wings at Goulburn Correctional Centre that opened in 1884 and are described by officials as outdated and unsafe to operate.
- Corrective Services and Minister Anoulack Chanthivong say the retirements are part of a statewide plan to create safer, modern prisons and that no staff will face forced redundancies or relocations.
- The Prison Officers Vocational Branch and Opposition figures say the closures will cut hundreds of beds, threaten about 169 jobs and will worsen remand and domestic‑violence capacity pressures, and they have demanded urgent talks.
- Staff were reported to plan the strike through 9am Friday and the dispute is being taken to the Industrial Relations Commission, a step that could determine whether short‑term court and policing disruptions continue.