The NSW Department of Corrective Services misled the public by denying a brawl at a Sydney jail was bikie gang related, the prison officers union says.
The Public Service Association (PSA) said its members were outraged the department had downplayed the Good Friday incident at Parklea prison.
Department of Corrective Services deputy commissioner Ian McLean on Sunday said reports of Notorious gang members attacking a Bandidos member were exaggerated.
He said the fight during Friday's morning muster involved seven prisoners and the victim was not a bikie.
But PSA Prison Officers Vocational Branch chairman Matt Bindley on Tuesday said any suggestion the victim was not a Bandido was "complete and utter nonsense".
Mr Bindley said he'd seen the paperwork showing he was a member of the outlaw motorbike gang.
The department was trying to downplay the incident because it had allowed members of rival bikie gangs to get at each other, he said.
"They are ducking and diving because they've made a mistake in this," he told AAP.
"As a result of their mistake there has been an incident, so I'd say they've got to downplay it to a certain degree."
The incident left one guard with a broken finger and four with cuts and bruises.
A two-hour stop work meeting of prison officers at the jail on Tuesday called on the Department of Corrective Services to give a true and accurate account of what occurred on Friday.
Mr Bindley said prison officers would await the department's response before deciding if further industrial action would be taken.
The PSA and the Department of Corrective Services are at loggerheads over the NSW government's decision to privatise Parklea and Cessnock Jail in the Hunter Valley.
ninemsn 14 Apr 2009
It is quite normal for government institutions to mislead the public.
But it is quite the opposite to admit this.
In this Technological era it is easier to dispel a lot of cover-ups.
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