The labor group Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has called for the abolition of contractualization of security guards to prevent a similar security lapses like what happened in the Resorts World Manila recently.
“For security guards to render quality service, they should be in-house, directly hired by principal employers. Security guards should be regular employee of the principal business owner and not hired mere contractual,” ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.
“Once they are directly hired, security guards will have more institutional loyalty, will receive less haphazard training, will be schooled not just in the handling of arms but in profiling, hand-to-hand combat, crowd management, and crowd control, which on the surface based on the tapes of Resorts World were sorely lacking, he said. Security guards play a vital role in businesses. They secure important assets, very important people, and the first responders to natural and man-made crisis in establishments,” he added.
Tanjusay said security guards are regular employees by security agencies but they are contractual employees by principal business owners, like the Resorts World Manila.
Aside from having no security of tenure, security guards are being abused by security agencies.
“They work more than 12 hours in one day. They are poorly trained. They are being paid poorly and given no social security insurance by their agencies. It is high time for business owners to directly hire security guards,” Tanjusay said.
Meanwhile, the labor group urged President Rodrigo Duterte to order the Labor Law Compliance Officers of the Department of Labor and Employment to conduct joint inspections with labor groups of hotels, resorts, casinos, restaurants, malls, airports, seaports, and high-tourist density areas to ensure compliance to public safety and labor regulations.
ALU vice president Louie Corral said Duterte should ensure the immediate passage of Senate Bill 1317, otherwise known as an act strengthening compliance with occupational safety and health standards and providing penalties for violations thereof.
“The victims of smoke suffocation were hotel and casino guests and workers because of Resorts World’s lack of fire exits for workers and guests. To prevent this same grave incident, we are calling for the inspection of other hotels and malls to ensure compliance with guests and workers’ safety,” Corral added.