The push for a prisoners' union

There are ongoing efforts for a prisoners' union to be formally recognised and legitimised to uphold the human rights of incarcerated people in Australia.

There is a growing push for a formally registered union to represent prisoners in Australia and ensure human rights are protected in places of detention.

The Australian Prisoners’ Union (APU) was formed in 1999 to represent and advance the interests of prisoners and people on parole, facilitated by Justice Action.

The organisation is not registered with the Fair Work Commission and cannot function like a formal union due to prisoners being expressly excluded in the legal definition of a “worker” despite undertaking work while incarcerated.

Following the pandemic, there has been a renewed push for prisoner self-determination, and the APU is now seeking formal registration and acknowledgement as a union.

Legitimising the union

The APU began working with the Fair Work Commission to be registered as an official union last year. It has since received feedback on the application and is now working with lawyers on a subsequent application.

“What we’re looking for is ensuring that the APU has access to the sorts of structures that are in place for other vulnerable people who are able to be exploited in the workplace and in their living arrangements,” Justice Action’s Brett Collins says.

“Prisoners are effectively doing slave labour - they have no right to say no. Compulsory work means that they don’t have the normal access that workers would have to things like the Fair Work Commission.”

The union works under the tagline of “fundamental human rights do not end at the prison gate”.

The Work Health and Safety Act currently does not apply to an incarcerated person working in prison. The APU has suggested a separate contractual relationship be established to give prisoners rights while working, and the right to unionise.

This would involve the union’s “detainee observers” being contracted to a private company and then be able to report on the conditions within the prison and discuss these issues with other incarcerated individuals.

The union would then have the power to assist in determining conditions, advocating for prisoner workers rights and ensuring the work being conducted is properly acknowledged.

“We’d be monitoring for the first time nationally every state and territory and reporting on conditions inside the prison,” Collins says. 

Self-determination

Giving prisoners the power of self-determination and to act as a community will help rehabilitation and reduce recidivism, Collins says.

“At the moment prisoners have a sense of community contempt and fear,” he says. “That stereotype of a dangerous person sitting behind the walls. It’s essential that prisoners are seen in different ways and can express themselves and use their time constructively.

“This idea of raising their self-esteem is really important.”

The union advocates on issues including access to legal aid, work health and safety, proper payment, visiting rights, freedom of association, the banning of invasive visitor searches, an entitlement to computers in cells and improved education and rehabilitation services.

There has been a growing movement in the US of prisoners unionising to represent their own interests and protest against exploitative working conditions.

There were widespread strikes in prisons in 2018 due to forced labour in the facilities. The Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee was established as a prison-led section of the Industrial Workers of the World in 2014.

Justice Action’s submission to the United Nation’s Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture ahead of its upcoming visit to Australia urged for the APU to act as a detainee organisation to assist with the monitoring of human rights in prisons.