Employees of the Region 10 Branch of the Strategic Action Security say that they are tired of improper treatment being meted out to them by the company.
Strategic Action Security is the security service which was awarded a government contract to render its services in Region 10.
When this newspaper contacted Richard Kanhai, the owner of the company yesterday, he indicated that he was driving and was therefore unable to entertain a conversation. He said that he would be better able to facilitate a conversation an hour later. However, when attempts were made to contact him at the advised time his phone was turned off. Continuous calls to Kanhai’s phone produced the same result.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) MP Vanessa Kissoon, who was yesterday in the region to listen to the employees’ concerns, said that several of them were at the time gearing up to stage a protest in front of the offices of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC).
Kissoon said that the employees were furious at the current state of things and fed up. She said that the situation was made worse due to the fact that several of the issues are longstanding ones.
The complaints include employees consistently not being paid on time; employees not being paid the full amounts owed to them; the non-issuing of uniforms to employees; the non payment of additional benefits, such as overtime; and in at least one other instance, the non payment of an employee’s National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions.
It was also said that the firm would assign one or two guards to guard buildings which require a much larger presence.
Joylyn Hazel, a security guard with the company said that employees had not yet been paid for the month of January. She said that though they had been paid early last December, the issue of late payments was a common occurrence. Hazel said that her employees had been promised that they would be paid early for the month of January, but that the month had come and gone without them receiving any pay. “Is always the same thing with them, we goin through it over and over and over every month”, an angry Hazel said.
Kissoon said that she had spoken to the company’s owner, Kanhai, on several occasions and received assurances that the problems would be rectified. From all indications it seems that the actions promised have not materialized. Kissoon said that Kanhai had told her that he usually has to wait on the Region to make payments to his company before he is able to pay his employees. This, he said, was the reason that payments had not been received.
Hazel also shared that many security guards had not received uniforms, and have been forced to wear their casual clothing to work. “We are not counted as security guards in Region 10. When we goin to work is like we going to party with the type of clothes we does be wearing, nobody cares about security guards in Region 10, but it gotta stop, and we gon do something about it.”
Another employee confirmed the complaint of late payments. He said that he had worked with other security companies in the past and the same problems seem to be recurring in each of them.
Other employees echoed these complaints.
Kissoon said that she was told last year by the then Regional Executive Officer (REO) that money for the security firm is usually released on the last day of every month and made available.
Furthermore, she said that a meeting convened yesterday to address several issues, including this one, revealed that the Region had already allotted payments for the security firm for the month of January, but the go ahead to make the payment has to be given by the Ministry of Finance. This has not yet been done.
She said that Maylene Stephens, the Region’s Deputy REO said that the Region had made available sums to cover a rate of $170 an hour.
One of the guards told Stabroek News that though they had been promised $143 an hour, they were currently receiving $120 an hour for their service.
Kissoon said conversations with a senior regional official last year revealed that payments for the firm are usually prepared and released on the last day of every month, by that it is sometimes delayed if the Ministry of Finance does not give the go ahead in time.
Kissoon said that Kanhai’s explanation about having to wait on the Region before releasing payment in unacceptable. She said that as an employer, he is supposed to have sufficient capital to make payments to employees until payment is received from the Region. She also said that the system is obviously flawed and in need of fixing.
She added that many of the person affected are single mothers who are sometimes unable to send their children to school or purchase other necessities.
In addition to these complaints, Kissoon related a solitary instance where an employee, who after falling ill went to the NIS to solicit assistance, only to be told that contributions had not been paid on her behalf.
Strategic Action Security was awarded the contract to provide security for the Region in 2012.
