By: Kelvin Chiringa
Security companies failing to create good labour relations with security guards could be kicked off the premises of foreign embassies since these are guests of the state, labour commissioner Bro-Matthew Shinguadja has said this week.
From paying security guards peanuts, to late salary disbursements and adopting a hostile approach to unions, local private companies have borne the brunt of accusations over the years as more companies came on board.
Shinguadja held a public meeting this week with unions, safety ministry officials and security companies in a bid to reflect on the troubles within the private security sector as well as to map the way forward towards a more organised sector.
“How do you feel if the state withdraw your licenses? So we need to talk. You are working at foreign missions by the grace of the state, because these are guests of the state but we deliberately gave you a piece of the cake.”
“None of the guards can say I am a guard with honour. Most are angry, fed up and not being treated fairly. If we deny that there are no problems in the sector then we are not being honest,” said Shinguadja in his opening statement.
The Security Association of Namibia also agreed that the meeting was a “chance to start something new in the history of Namibia’s security industry”.
The sector was given an Act in 1998 which was never implemented, and with many companies coming to vie for tenders, Shinguadja said “Things fell away” as each did to their liking, with no regard for a minimum wage.
Although some want an orderly collective bargaining on the part of the unions and those they represent, others have not showed a liking for the very idea.
Yet the labour commissioner stamped that a well organised workforce and employers was much easier to deal with.
It has also come out that some security guards are not allowed to enter the premises of companies they work for.
A union present at the meeting said some who hail from the fringes of society were signing contracts they did not understand.
Yet some companies were scooping tenders while they mistreated workers, it was alleged.
A safety and security ministry official has in the meantime said the 1998 law has been shredded to pieces for a new law to which public input is expected by mid-year.
Part of the reason the Act was disregarded was that it needed too many amendments, and the new law will address issues of minimum wage compliance, a universal minimum training requirement for all guards as well as background checks on criminal records.
Some security company owners want government to give a tender for not more than three years after which it should be handed over to another company to promote fairness.
Others are against the idea of government publishing a tender and giving it back to the same old companies.
“In that case they should give back our money that we paid during the tender application,” another company owner also aired.
Unions have also been requested to help train the guards instead of “just sitting there and wanting to deduct money for their people”.