New dispensation for security guards

Satawu has secured an improvement in the sectoral determination for its members in the private security industry.

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Johannesburg - The SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has secured an improvement in the sectoral determination for its members in the private security industry.

The determination will be in effect for three years from the beginning of this month (September 1, 2015).

In a statement, the union said the major gain achieved is the proposed phasing out of the two lowest grades for private security workers.

As a result workers earning as little as R2 800 per month now will earn R3 500 by 2017.

The union said this was a step towards removing the “apartheid slavery demarcation of pay grading”, although it admitted more work to increase wages for workers remains to be done.

“Satawu knows that gross inequality in terms of wages and conditions in the security sector is certainly a recipe for, not only more insecurity, strikes, but also for wider social instability,” it said.

“We are glad that the minister [of labour] has taken into consideration the work done by the negotiations team into promulgation [of the new sectoral minimum wage].

“Another big victory for the workers was [the] abolishing of the definitions of ship and cargo officers. These workers are now aligned to the current existing grades, which will see them receiving benefits, which they were deprived of in the past such as provident funds,” it added.

The new sectoral determination comes as the security industry has grown exponentially, and is now larger than it has ever been in South Africa.

But Satawu has reminded the industry that those who own the companies have increased their earnings disproportionately to lower paid workers.

It said the three year agreement would allow it to go back to its members, better equipped for the 2018 wage negotiations.

“We should all be looking beyond immediate battles to a better, economic system,” it said.

LABOUR BUREAU