Prisoners in high-security Australian jail go on strike over pay deal

Prisoners at Victoria's highest security prison have gone on strike to demand better pay.

Inmates at Barwon Prison, 75 km southwest of Melbourne near Geelong, have refused to work for a week on the grounds that they are not paid fairly.

Under a new deal, recently imposed at Barwon, prisoners in Victoria are paid between 4.90 U.S. dollars and 6.80 U.S. dollars per day depending on the work they are assigned to.

Management at Barwon took action against those who walked off their jobs by confining them to their cells until they agreed to go back to work.

Brett Collins, a spokesperson for prisoner advocate group Justice Action, said the prisoners needed the money to pay for necessities such as toiletries and culturally appropriate food.

"They actually have to pay for things like toiletries," Collins told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Tuesday.

Edward O'Donohue, a corrections spokesperson for Victoria's Opposition Liberal National coalition, said it was "unacceptable" that maximum-security prisoners would "feel emboldened" to go on strike.

"I think the community would be outraged that this sort of thing is going on in a maximum security prison," O'Donohue told the ABC.

Authorities in charge of the situation remain confident that the protest at Barwon will not escalate to riots which rocked the Melbourne Remand Center in July 2015 when prisoners set fires and attacked guards over a ban on smoking.

All prisoners in Victoria are expected to work doing tasks such as gardening, maintenance, woodworking and textile jobs. Endit