Corrections staff turn to food banks as fuel crisis takes toll

Corrections staff are turning to food banks as the fuel crisis takes its toll, the Corrections union says.

While some prisons, such as Auckland's Mt Eden, were located close to a main centre, many prisons including Wellington's Rimutaka Prison, Christchurch Men's and Waikeria were further away from where staff lived.

The Corrections Association had written to department management with suggestions that would help staff, including a travel subsidy, a van pickup system to collect staff for work and allowing non-custodial staff to work from home.

The association's president Floyd du Plessis, told Nine to Noon, the average commute for workers was 45 minutes, but some were travelling up to two-and-a-half hours for work.

"Just like everyone else out there, they're really struggling, everything's tight, the fuel crisis has made it worse."

Prisons weren't often built near areas where people lived and worked, he said, and even with Auckland's Mt Eden, with the pay staff received most could not afford to live anywhere close to the area.

Public transport was usually not an option, du Plessis said, as there wasn't usually public transport nearby and if there was shift work made this not possible.

"We have a serious situation where staff are underpaid comparative to a lot of other areas and a large percentage of staff are absolutely reliant on overtime to make ends meet.

"Staff are struggling and unable to pay fuel bills."

There had been examples of staff needing to stand in queues at food banks recently, du Plessis said, to feed their families.

Some staff were also taking annual leave of avoiding work so they did not have to pay high fuel bills.

Many prison workers did not need to be in the office everyday, du Plessis said, especially if they worked in an administration role.

He said they had also put forward suggestions to Corrections which included putting on vans for groups of staff who could travel together as many were coming from the same area, or to look at a regional allowance in terms of distance.

"We've seen the support for social workers and teachers with initiative like that."

Initially, du Plessis said Corrections had said it wanted to wait and see what the government did. But since then it had reached out to have a conversation with the union.

The union had started trying to ease the stress for workers by pausing union fees for members for eight weeks, du Plessis said.

The Corrections Association has written to department management with suggestions that would help staff, including a travel subsidy, a van pickup system to collect staff for work, and allowing non-custodial staff to work remotely.

Corrections said it was prepared to work with staff and would be meeting with the union.

A spokesperson for Corrections, Alex Povey, told Nine to Noon in a statement, Corrections was working closely with the wider public service to ensure it remained aligned to the government's fuel response plan.

"We recognise increased fuel costs are difficult for our staff, and we would value the opportunity to engage with CANZ on this matter."

Povey he had been in touch with the union in late April to organise a meeting to hear member's concerns and explore any ideas that could be considered.

He said Corrections was committed to ongoing dialogue.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.