On Wednesday, July 17 sheriff officers from around the Western region take industrial action over lack of pay and staff retention.
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NewsTranscript
00:00It's unfair the conditions we're expected to work in. Sometimes working days that are 12 to 14 hour days,
00:06travelling to assist other locations or locations attached to our own hub.
00:10We don't get overtime for that, we have a flexible working agreement,
00:14but we're underpaid on our base rate for what we do, especially with the cost of inflation
00:19and the rising cost of living, it's getting harder and harder to sustain a lifestyle on what we are paid.
00:25We also sometimes find ourselves in situations that the normal members of the public do not.
00:30Having to evict people from their houses, seeing them in the worst states of their lives,
00:36and there are other instances where sheriff's officers have had to assist the police
00:40in unfortunately finding deceased individuals.
00:44There are a lot of things sheriff's officers do that we are not fairly compensated for.
00:48The sheriff's office promised us two years ago that there would be an uplift for 1-2 sheriff's officer staff.
00:55They've repeatedly undertaken to approve that uplift.
00:59The state government has failed to approve in the latest budget.
01:02That's why we're walking out. The sheriff's officers deserve a fair pay rise.
01:05In 2022, out of 42 working weeks, I spent 28 of them on the road,
01:10travelling away from my family and my friends, obviously missing out on events while being on the road.
01:15These were things I was directed to do for work.
01:18It's just more that we want to be fairly compensated for the time we're putting into this job.
01:22We spend a lot more time on the job that we do at home with our families, particularly when we are travelling for work.
01:27It's only fair that we're compensated for all this.