Prison strikers face legal action

HM Prison Brixton: Warders stage an illegal walkout

Members of a striking prison union have met the director general of the Prison Service after a morning of unlawful industrial action.

Hundreds of members of the Prison Officers Association at jails across England, Wales and Scotland held unauthorised union meetings on Wednesday over a proposed prison privatisation.

Director General of the Prison Service, Martin Narey, has threatened legal action if there is any further disruption.

Levels of violence are far greater in the private sector

Mark Healy POA

Union officials, angered by plans to market test Brixton jail with a view to privatisation, say they would be happy to guarantee normal working if the Prison Service involved them in discussions on issues affecting their members.

The union reported a "frank exchange" of views after the meeting.

Warders are banned from taking strike action under a law brought in by the last Conservative government.

Injunction

The Prison Service said 45 of the UK's 138 prisons were affected by the action. The union claimed 80 were disrupted.

But Mr Narey said early indications showed the action did not have widespread support.

Brixton prison: Row erupts over "planned privatisation"

"If the POA repeats this action, I will have no hesitation in seeking a High Court injunction," he said.

He insisted the market testing of Brixton Prison would go ahead and said the strike had jeapordised plans to transform industrial relations.

"As I told the POA conference in April, market tests are inevitable," he said.

Within half an hour of the strike starting, union leaders received a fax from the Prison Service demanding they return to normal work by 0930 BST, or face legal action.

'Failed experiment'

Mark Healy, the national chairman of the POA, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Private prisons are an experiment that has been in this country for eight years and they have failed.

"Levels of violence... and suicide are far greater in the private sector."

A Prison Service spokeswoman refused to comment on the strike action.

"We have been working with the POA closely and we are prepared to listen to their concerns," she said.

UK prison officers have not staged a strike for more than 60 years.