In the interview, David emphasises the importance of pay and working conditions in attracting high quality people to the industry. This is surely the only responsible stance for the security industry to adopt? However, in spite of its corporate responsibility rhetoric, Group 4 Securicor is undermining the co-operative efforts of unions and other interested parties in the industry to drive up standards.
In the United States, the record of the company’s subsidiary Wackenhut is one of low wages, low standards of training, poor vetting procedures and employees having to pay for their own bullet-resistant vests!
If David is to achieve one of his stated goals (ie to help improve the quality of all security employees), then all security contractors must be forced to provide their workers with “more job enrichment and fulfilment”.
At the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), we’re campaigning alongside companies from around the world for Group 4 Securicor to match its high-minded rhetoric with improved pay and working conditions for its employees. At present, those employees don’t even have access to the most basic of employment rights.
Only then they do will we feel secure with our own security sector.
Stephen Lerner, Director (Building Services Division), Service Employees International Union
