Sheriffs across rural NSW staged a walk-off on Wednesday 17 July, in protest of what they say is a staffing crisis and poor pay across the sector. 

Forty-four courthouses were affected including those in Bourke, Cobar, Nyngan, Warren, Narromine, Dunedoo, Gilgandra, Coonabarabran, Lightning Ridge, Walgett, and Brewarrina. 

"Central West has some of the most egregious vacancies in the sheriff's office," organiser from the Public Service Association (PSA) Lachlan Good said. 

"The $70,000 to $77,000 a year that sheriff's officers are entitled to at base isn't a wage that competes with many equivalent wages in the law enforcement sector, or the security sector." 

"Why not just go work somewhere else if they're going to pay them out poorly?"

 In NSW, there are 300 sheriff's offices spread across 170 courts, this means that some courthouses do not sit on any given day. 

Sheriffs spend one week in different circuits. 

The Dubbo Circuit includes Bourke and Brewarrina; Coonabarabran and Coonamble; Cobar, Nyngan, Warren; and Walgett and Lightning Ridge. 

"We need more sheriff's offices to accommodate the growing number of matters in local and district courts." 

Mid-2022 the leadership of the office of the sheriff received a pay increase, however, the benefits did not trickle down. 

"We are meant to operate as a team, we should be renumerated together as a team," a sheriff of several years said.

"The reason I am taking action is because head got a huge pay rise mid-2022 but it hasn't filtered down."

 “In 2023 there was a review of Sheriffs’ pay but the report was never released under 'cabinet in confidence," PSA Secretary Stuart Little said. 

"Sheriffs waited patiently, and were told the matter would be resolved in the 2024 budget, but when it was delivered in mid-June nothing happened, and now they’ve been fobbed off again with some other made-up bureaucratic process, so Sheriffs have just had enough."

Sheriff duties include serving warrants, summons, enforcement, and other orders issued by various NSW courts and tribunals. 

There are, however, dangers that come with the job and the PSA says the risk that sheriffs put themselves at daily is not reflected in their pay. 

Bourke Courthouse. IMAGE: Bourke Shire Council

“Sheriffs put their lives on the line in courthouses to make sure judges, lawyers, and members of the public are safe from crooks and criminals, yet they are paid the same as people with desk jobs and administration roles at the courthouse, it’s just not on,” said Mr Little.

"It's like nurses in hospitals or teachers in schools. Everyone has unique stresses and difficulties in their role but you have to be paid a living wage for it."

NSW sheriffs will be part of an industrial action in two weeks until the government responds to their demands for better pay. 

Public Service Association Secretary Stewart Little. IMAGE: PSA

The action will involve a shortening of the work hours from eight hours per day to seven. 

Mr Good said sheriffs may work more hours upon request, however, with overtime compensation.

A spokesperson for the Department of Communities and Justice said, "The NSW Sheriff’s Office, part of the Department of Communities and Justice, is working with the Public Service Association of NSW (PSA) to resolve this industrial issue."

"NSW Sheriffs have been offered a 10.5 percent pay rise, including super, over three years."

"This matter is currently before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission."