EMPLOYERS and workers in the security industry are heading for an acrimonious showdown as the parties head back to the negotiating table today in a bid to determine wage increases for the next three years.
Wage negotiations in the sector in 2006 turned violent, leading to a months-long disruption of security services and the intimidation and killing of a number of nonstriking security guards.
The parties are again far apart in this year’s round of negotiations, with unions demanding an average wage increase of a mammoth 84%, while employers’ opening offer is at a below-inflation 4%.
Costa Diavastos, chairman of the Security Services Employer Organisation and chief negotiator for employers, said the 4% was merely an opening offer, designed in part to temper the demands of unions, and that employers were likely to bring a more attractive offer to the table as the negotiations advanced.
“The structure of their demand appears to be an attempt to take a giant step forward in the first year, but this is impractical. What they are asking for is double what is being paid now,” Diavastos said.
The demand comes as the sector has seen steep cutbacks in security spending in the wake of the global economic downturn.
While household spending on security has been unaffected by the downturn, industrial customers affected by the downturn have started scaling back on security. About two-thirds of the 350000 registered security officers guard the premises of large industrial companies, such as mines and car-manufacturing plants, many of which have been severely affected by the crisis.
According to Diavastos, many industrial clients have already started cutting back on auxiliary services, such as security. The cutbacks had not yet been quantified but were expected to increase as the crisis deepened, he said.
The minimum wage in the industry — for a grade E security officer — is R1885 in urban areas and R1472 in rural areas. However, it is understood that most companies might not be complying with minimum wage stipulations.
In this round of negotiations the coalition of security unions, led by the Cosatu-affiliated South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), is demanding increases of 113,7% for grade E, 106,5% for grade D, 93% for grade C, 60,5% for grade B, and 44% for grade A security officers.
Satawu’s Jackson Simon could not be reached for comment.