Security guarding remains a minimum wage job, with some shop floor officer pay the same as the assistant behind the deli counter, a Professional Security survey has suggested.
Several years into the SIA licence regime for contract security officers, there are signs that regulation has not led to rising wages and weekly hours below the 48-hour week of the Working Time Directive. Rather, the market appears to have expected security officers not only to work 12-hour shifts or 56 hour weeks. Some employers are offering part-time work, of perhaps 16 or 21 hours a week. One criticism of the SIA badging regime – that people with poor spoken English can pass the training and so hold a licence – appears to linger. One London vacancy asked for candidates to ‘be able to hold a conversation in English’.
The National Minimum Wage (NMW) began in 1999 at £3.60 and has been £5.93 for adults (defined as over 21) since October 2010. When the NMW came in, there was some concern that in some UK regions officer pay rates would have to rise to meet the NMW. When Security Industry Authority badging for contract security officers became compulsory in 2006, its advocates hoped that regulation would bring a virtuous circle of higher standards – better officer pay and conditions, better retention of staff, and more respect for guarding services. London and the south east already had significantly higher wage rates for security officers compared with the regions. While Canary Wharf corporate security officers may still earn £9 an hour in 2011, some central and outer London security vacancies offer £6 or £7 an hour, expecting jobseekers to meet ‘flexible’ hours, such as a 6am start.
Most if not all of the main guarding contractors place vacancies on the Jobcentreplus website, such as Chubb Security Personnel, and Reliance Security, the guarding contractors recently acquired by Securitas. MITIE Security, Corps Security and VSG are among large contract guard firms recruiting widely for relief security officers. On the Job-seeking website part of www.direct.gov.uk, jobs advertised included –
Securitas Mobile (the mobile patrol arm of Securitas), patrol officer, 48 hours over seven days, part-time hours available.
Advance Security, corporate security officer, £7 an hour (six nights on, three nights off).
Kingdom Security, seeking retail security officer, 30 hours a week, £6.15 an hour.
There was in January 2011 vacancies still some sign of higher pay in London and the south east compared with other regions. MITIE for example were advertising for a security officer to do shopping centre patrols – 48 to 60 hours a week – at £8 an hour. That said, TSS (Total Security Services) were recruiting security officers for ‘prestigious contracts’ in the Home Counties such as Tring (Hertfordshire), Reading and Slough (Berkshire) and Weybridge and Egham (Surrey), at between £6 and £6.50 an hour.
The Berkshire-based security contractor United Avia Services was in January advertising £6 an hour for a ‘security agent’ at Heathrow Airport, the 20 hours a week to be spread over four days of six between 6am and 10pm (’applicants must show flexibility regarding finish times’). Typical duties were customer service, profiling passengers, and aircraft searches. The applicant had to hold a SIA badge and provide a standard disclosure (’expense will be met by applicant’). As a comparison, G4S is seeking part-time, summer seasonal aviation security officers, at £6.12 an hour, at East Midlands Airport. Applicants are required to provide an enhanced disclosure. Disclosure expense will be met by employer. The security contractor said that an applicant had to show references customer service skills; G4S would provide training.
Nor are minimum wage guarding jobs necessarily – at least as advertised – only the stereotypical overnight static ones that might place few demands on a guard and even give the officer the chance to sleep. Some contract guarding advertisers asked for applicants to hold a ‘front line’ SIA licence plus a CCTV PSS (public space surveillance) licence. One such minimum wage job was described as ‘continuously patrolling a defined route within a residential complex. Your duties will include prevention of vandalism, liaising with residence and community police. Accurate and timely reporting of events and incidents are of primary importance, and use of digital camera is required.’
Some pay rates for officers start at £6 or ‘exceed national minimum wage’. One of those ‘exceeds’ jobs was advertised by retailer Wilkinsons, seeking a security guard with an SIA licence and previous security experience. Responsibilities would include patrol of shop floor and vulnerable areas, liaise with town link guards daily, monitor till area, staff areas and staff, update security and health and safety checks in line with company standard, and escorting cash. Another household name, ASDA, was advertising for a part-time ‘security colleague’, meeting the national minimum wage, at £6 a week. An Asda ‘security colleague’ vacancy in Edinburgh was described as ‘meets national minimum wage’, the same rate as for retail assistant vacancies on the shop floor, or the delicatessen counter. A security colleague would play ‘a vital role in safeguarding people and protecting our business’, according to the Asda recruitment website. Roles included indoor and outdoor patrols, and random spot checks on staff or visitors as a precaution, with a manager, ‘with you acting as a witness and recording the details’.
Talking of retail, MITIE was advertising for a security officer – at £7.50, one of the higher officer pay rates around – to work at outlets for Marks and Spencer’s in the Leicester area: “Must be prepared to travel from store to store. You must have a driving licence, be retail trained, be able to patrol and complete reporting systems. SIA licence is required and must cover manned guarding and door supervision.” And still talking retail, AFC Group were seeking a part-time officer for an unnamed prestigious client in Nottingham, at an hourly rate of £6.10 an hour, including Simply Health plan and legal helpline and ‘free uniform’. With their vacancies, Stag Security offered a meal plan and child care scheme.
Another retail vacancy at an unnamed employer in Glasgow offered £6.50 to £7 for working as part of a loss prevention team. Other duties included patrolling the store, CCTV and reception. Applicants had to be computer literate as some work was done on Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
Some vacancies were placed not be security contractors, but recruitment agencies. Wolverhampton-based Security Guards UK had vacancies in Derby and in the West Midlands for a self-employed person, the advert pointing out that the self-employed are responsible for paying their own National Insurance contributions and tax. Pay rate was ‘equivalent to the National Minimum Wage rate’, and ‘negotiable depending on experience’. The contractor had similar vacancies in close protection.
Another ‘exceeds minimum wage’ advertiser, not a contractor, is the Haymarket Shopping Centre, in Leicester. A candidate ‘must hold a valid SIA licence, dual licensing would be preferred’, and would work flexibly, five days out of seven, for 25 hours a week, including weekends.
On the event security side, the Birmingham NEC was advertising for casual security officers to cover shows and exhibitions (’door supervisor badge preferred’).
In the south east, typical door superviser rates are between £9 and £12 an hour.
Among the higher pay rates, Serco was offering £6.98 for a security officer at a Leicester hospital (to ’deliver a polite compassionate, efficient service to patients and visitors, carry out patient searches, responding to general enquiries on telephone and in person, issuing keys, unlocking doors, providing first line, response to violent and aggressive persons, monitor security systems and alarms’). Midlands rates for relief security officers were as high as £7.30, while Shield Guarding Company sought a security shift team leader at £7.46 an hour.
Or, rates vary between sites, between £6 and £7.50 an hour, as described by Constant Security Services seeking an officer to cover a Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire rota.
As for officer hours, they were typically given as below 48 hours, though one day-night alarm response job was for 60 hours a week in five 12-hour shifts.
As for salaried officer jobs, the University of Kent at Canterbury was advertising for a term-time security patrol officer, at a salary of between £15,200 and £17,100. Judging by the National Health Service jobs website www.jobs.nhs.uk, security-related there are drastically fewer NHS vacancies around. One vacancy was for a security officer to provide a front of house reception service, at a mental health trust. The salary: £15,600 to £18,600 (the ‘successful candidate will be able to demonstrate compassion, understanding, commitment, enthusiasm, and be highly motivated’). Similarly, public space CCTV vacancies seem to be lacking.
Other security-related jobs advertised recently included a personal assistant for a ‘charming’ security director based in Canary Wharf, at a salary of £35-38k, to cover maternity leave.
