Prison officers at a regional correctional facility have walked off the job after a man who assaulted four guards was sentenced to what the union claimed was a "slap on the wrist".
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Cameron Reginald Welsh, 26, was on October 29 sentenced to a three-year good behaviour order, a community-based sentence, in Cessnock Local Court, in the NSW Hunter Valley.
The sentence was handed down for four counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and inflicting actual bodily harm.
The Public Service Association of NSW issued a media release on October 30 saying prison officers from Cessnock Correctional Centre walked off the job in response.
The statement said prison officers at Bathurst Correctional Centre also walked off the job, with prison officers at all of the state's 36 jails expected to follow this afternoon. The jails have been secured and are operating with a reduced number of staff.
The union said the four victims Welsh bashed at Cessnock earlier this year were hospitalised, and that two would not return to work.
They said Welsh had been transferred to Goulburn's Supermax jail and isolated but that he could be released, on strict conditions, now that he had been sentenced to a Community Correction Order.
Court documents show the order started on October 29, 2025, for three years.
Prison officers in NSW are represented by the Public Service Association of NSW.
President Nicole Jess, a sworn prison officer, said Welsh's punishment beggared belief, and described it as a "slap on the wrist ... a slap in the face to every prison officer in this state".
She said prison officers were livid and were demanding immediate action from the state government.
Prison officers walking off the job could paralyse local, district and supreme courts.
NSW Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said an urgent hearing at the Industrial Relations Commission on Thursday was expected to resolve the issue.
"While I understand staff are angry, a decision of the independent judiciary is not a basis for industrial action," he said.
"The government values the hard work of correctional officers, often in difficult and hostile circumstances.
"Correctional officers deserve to be safe on the job."
Welsh had previously been sentenced for brutally bashing three men in three separate attacks at New Lambton, Woodberry and Beresfield, stomping on one man's head and repeatedly striking two others with a baseball bat.
- with Australian Associated Press
