Security glitch

More than five months after the Supreme Court ruled that security guards should be regarded as employees and not independent contract workers – giving them access to paid vacation, sick leave, overtime, and a range of other benefits – some private firms say they may need more time beyond April 1 to roll out the implementation.

Despite getting a reprieve from paying outstanding employer contributions – some $806 million in the case of Marksman Limited from 2000-2016 which was being requested by the National Housing Trust (NHT) – Joseph Dibbs, managing director of Quest Security Services, argued that an April 1 timeline may not be feasible for some companies.

The ruling, he argued, will result in a 49 per cent increase in the cost of security services, a bill that will ultimately be passed on to customers – 60 per cent of which is made up by the Government and the rest in the private sector.

The Government has indicated that it will not be contracting firms failing to treat guards as employees in line with the court ruling in the new financial year, which begins on April 1. The firms are also liable to make statutory deductions from the guards, rather than their doing so independently, and pay the employers’ contribution for each worker.

There are a reported 179 registered security companies, among them 51 armed security establishments, offering a range of services from the island’s ports to ministries, gated communities, and private companies.

“Everybody appreciated that we all didn’t have to pay the massive amount of money that would have accrued. We couldn’t and we would have gone bankrupt then if we had to pay it,” prefaced Dibbs during a security forum put on by the HEART/NSTA Trust at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Tuesday.

“On the books, it said that security guards were employees, but as the Government was purchasing our services, it made our business viable (independent contractors),” Dibbs posited. “And then, overnight, it changed, and now we have to change our entire business model. Immediately, we are going to the public market at a 49 [per cent] increase, which does not seem equitable right away,” he added.

Tuesday’s security forum was attended by several stakeholders of the security industry.

Guest speaker Justice David Batts explained his landmark ruling on the matter involving NHT and Marksman Limited.

Batts noted that security companies had at least three years since the NHT had formally written to the courts about the unlawful acts being carried out by the companies.

“In 2018 when the suit was commenced, even if your legal advice said you are correct and you have a 90 per cent chance of winning, prudence would have dictated that you started to put a few things in place in the event the case goes other than how your lawyer predicted,” charged Batts.

“Think of a landlord and tenant, where the landlord has taken his tenant to court and after how many years finally manage to win. He gets an order for possession and the tenant says, ‘Hold on, I just lost the case. Give me another year nuh!’ So we have to balance the thing,” he said, adding that lawyers may be able to give advice on arguing the judgment, but that it was not his place to do so.

At the forum, questions about a 60-hour workweek for security guards to counter overtime concerns, and arguments about the ruling opening up a can of worms for other sectors that employ similar contractual services were put to the judge.

Batts explained that it was up to the policymakers to enact policy and that each case must be examined on its own merit.

Meanwhile, Marian Williams-Love, group chief security manager at GraceKennedy, welcomed the ruling. Representing corporate clients at the forum, she expressed concern about burnout.

“A guard earns $310.12 per hour, which includes basic and laundry allowance, which translates into $12,404.80 per 40-hour workweek. In order to take home a sensible income, guards will have to work an additional 20 hours. That’s 60 hours for the week for an extra $6,202.40, and there are those who will stretch themselves even further,” she said.

“Many of times we find that the guards are exhausted, which results in them being ineffective in securing our staff and our facilities. They are not alert and they will sleep on the job, especially those on the graveyard shift,” she posited.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com