Pension plans, paid sick leave

“We’ve broken the minimum wage barrier again. we’ve gone where no other private security company in the Caribbean has gone before.”

Sure Security Services Limited’s recent eye-catching advertisement stands boldly on a page in a newspaper, an attempt to lure anyone who might have had doubts about entering the industry.

One firm located on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain went as far as offering $17 per hour to precepted or armed officers.“No gimmick, no empty promises,” Corporate Protective Services Limited stated in another ad.

At a time when the economy is booming, the security business is resurfacing as a viable option for employment. Recent company ads, with various options, have appeared in newspapers trying to get people to wear their uniform.

With pension plans and paid leave, the industry might be on the way up.

industry stalwart, Securicor, in a recent ad was offering benefits on par with other companies in the business sector : paid sick leave, paid vacation leave, pension plan, medical plan and life insurance.

A company official said the company was looking for ways to be innovative and make the job more appealing to prospective employees.

One Securicor guard said with the industry becoming more compeitive and more and more companies entering the business, the company had to raise the bar.

Sure Security claims to be the only company in Trinidad and Tobago to offer unarmed security guards at $12 per hour or $3500 per month, and precepted officers $14 per hour or $4000 monthly.

They also boast of offering the highest rate for armed security guards which is $16 hourly or $4600 per month.

And this is just a fraction of the attractive package the company is offering to its potential recruits. According to the advertisement, officers will also be entitled to double-time pay on public holidays, paid sick leave, paid vacation leave, group health plan, insurance coverage and free uniforms. The rates, the company said, are almost twice the $9 minimum wage offered at most companies. The bottom line is that the industry is becoming so competitive that security companies have no choice but to find new ways to entice people into the fold.

“Being a security guard takes a lot out of someone and those who work properly must be properly paid,” said Anthony Walters, Managing Director of Sure Security.

Walters said back in 1984 when the company was formed, wages for officers stood at $4 per hour. This has since grown to twice that and now stands at the minimum wage to $9 per hour.

“Guards have been oppressed for too long and I believe that if something is due to them then they are supposed to get it,” Walters charged.

He views the security industry as one of the hardest jobs that one can do. Not only because of the safety issues involved but because the officers are required stay awake for eight to 12 hours per day, on a weekly basis, he pointed out.

“Security guards must be seen as important people and must be dealt with accordingly and when companies make justifiable demands they have to be on par with salaries,” he reasoned.

He added that Sure has been increasing wages for officers every year for over five years now. This year saw the largest increase with salaries for unarmed guards rising from $10.50 per hour to $12 per hour and from $12.50 to $16 per hour for armed officers.

The annual increases though does not guarantee an immediate boost to staff, he said.

“When it comes to joining the security industry people tend to hesitate a lot because of the hours they realise they have to put in and because they are accustomed to being fooled by ads that claim to be paying one rate but actually pay them less when they are recruited,” he said.

A number of other companies are also making a grab for prospective officers. The basic requirements remain much the same : TT nationals who are between the ages of 18 to 50, who are physically fit and in good health.

Asked whether companies would follow in offering new packages, industry observers say for now it seems to be just a few companies offering better deals.

“Things are slowly changing,” one official said, adding that the smaller companies have taken the iniatiative.

Samuel Stafford, Director of Executive Bodyguard Servi-ces, an academy which offers training for Corporate Protec-tive Services’ agents, views the high wages as an incentive.

“Agents are becoming quite difficult to acquire and you also find that the more you offer them, the better service you receive,” he said.

He said one of the major problems facing the security industry is that clients or companies requesting service want firms to offer them the cheapest rate.

This, in turn, causes firms to cut back on wages and as a result the level of standard in the industry drops, and affects people’s perception of security guards.

“The industry needs to take a stand that they would not offer their services for anything less than $27 per hour,” he said.

He believes that in order to maintain an image of quality service, the industry needs to set a standardised wage for both armed and unarmed officers.

In addition, he thinks because officers are so hard to find, some companies just grab at anyone who walks through the door, even those without proper physical training and knowledge of what their job entails. Corporate Protection Services, he said, is the only known company in TT that offers both physical and academic training to officers before they are hired as agents. The company also provides training for potential officers at other agencies, he said.

“It is mandatory for them to undergo training for seven hours per day for six weeks,” Stafford said.

Unarmed agents, he added, are paid $15 per hour. Benefits include group health plan, group pension, double time pay on public holidays and paid vacation, sick leave and casual days.

Beside aiming to raise the working conditions of security guards, one other security firm, Innovative Technologies Limited cites another reason for improving their compensation packages.

The company notes that because of the attractive salaries being offered in the construction industry and other weekly and daily paid jobs, most persons will not give security jobs a second glance.

“Because of this you have to offer competitive packages to sort of pull the workers way from those areas,” an official of the company stated.

But despite the enticing wages being laid out on the tables, security guards are faced with some realities.

“The disadvantage is that whenever you falter on the job you are charged for it,” one officer said in an interview in Port-of-Spain.

For instance, he said, if an officer is found sleeping on the job or caught misbehaving, instead of being disciplined, money is taken out of his salary. Also, if the officer is required to wear a tie and is caught without it, he will also be “charged” for it.

“Being a security guard is very hard, you have to work long hours and sometimes you find yourself standing for all of those 12 hours,” stressed another, who is employed with Alphega Security Services Limited.

He added that the lives of security guards are jeopardised on a daily basis and, like police officers, they can never tell what day would be their last.

Guards state that to make a profit in the business, one has to be committed to the job and also smart.

“When you come into this business you have to use your head, you have to know that it pays more to work in a firm as opposed to working with a private company itself,” one guard said.

He added that being employed with a firm is much more profitable as workers receive additional benefits, such as double time pay on public holidays and a pension plan. Private companies, he said, only pay the flat rate of $9 per hour and additional benefits are not included.

Even the female baton guards feel the strains of the security guard industry. They lament the long hours they have to work and express fear for their safety, especially at night.

If a female officer, for instance, has finished her 12- hour shift for the day and her “relief” does not show up, she has to work another 12 hour, without questions asked.

“But compared to when I first started in 1990, things have drastically improved in term of wages and the treatment of workers,” another said of the industry.