Capable and well-suited people are walking away from an important job in the justice system because they cannot afford to keep putting on the uniform, an experienced sheriff says.
More than 20 Sworn Uniformed Sheriff's Officers, as they are formally known, walked off the job for two hours in the Hunter on Thursday morning and protested outside Newcastle courthouse amid what the Public Service Association has described as poor pay and a staffing shortage.
According to the union, sheriffs in NSW earn between $64,000 (for a probationary officer) and $76,000 (the maximum for an officer with at least five years' experience) per year including tax.
The Department of Communities and Justice said in a statement sheriffs had been offered a 10.5 per cent pay rise over three years, but the union is continuing negotiations - calling for a greater increase given the often dangerous nature of the work.
Paul O'Shea, a Hunter sheriff who has been in the job for nine years, said he and his colleagues were losing good people because sheriffs were not paid enough.
And with - what the union estimates is - a staffing shortage of about 10 per cent of operational personnel in the Hunter, Mr O'Shea said the level of remuneration made it difficult to attract people to fill vacant roles.
"We lose the knowledge, capabilities and experience of doing the job the best way we can," he told the Herald outside Newcastle courthouse.
"We are losing great people because they need more money to survive in the cost of living crisis ... even though a lot of the time they are saying they don't want to leave."
Mr O'Shea said sheriffs were an important conduit between the justice system and the community - "a core element of the communication [and] the protective responsibilities" in court precincts.
Aside from this work, sheriffs also enforce court orders from all tiers of the system - from local to federal.
"At the end of the day, there's a very high risk in entering premises to enforce those responsibilities," Mr O'Shea said.
Local court sittings generally begin at 9.30am, while district court sittings often start at 10am.
Non-union officers-in-charge filled the rostered sheriffs' roles at Newcastle between 8.30am and 10.30am on Thursday while the industrial action took place, meaning sittings in the city went ahead on time.
But it was a different story elsewhere in the region, where courts such as Maitland - where 118 matters were listed - faced a delay and began sitting at 11.30am.
A Department of Communities and Justice spokesperson said in a statement to the Herald it was working with the Public Service Association to resolve the issue.
It was aware of the industrial action prior to Thursday and said "good faith negotiations" were ongoing between the government department and the union.
