GWU hails wardens’ new conditions but says security sector is ‘disastrous’

Public tenders should bind winning bidders to provide their workers with decent employment terms and wages, a General Workers’ Union section secretary said, lauding a similar stand taken recently with traffic wardens.

The idea to have work conditions included in the tenders for warden services followed a wide consultation ahead of the sector’s reform late last year. It was found wardens’ work conditions were not up to standard in some cases.

Cory Greenland, secretary of the GWU’s professional services section, praised the government’s approach and said the work-related conditions made it easier for the union to agree on a new collective agreement with all three warden service companies.

However, he said, the move should be extended to all other public tenders, especially in sectors that made use of precarious labour.

Mr Greenland said wardens would enjoy a “substantial” improvement in their salaries, which tender documents put at between a minimum of €10,000 to a maximum of €15,000 annually.

The new collective agreement lays down that wardens should work a 40-hour, five-day week and be paid overtime for anything in excess of that. Moreover, it also introduced a Sunday allowance.

It had emerged following the consultation process that some companies were short-changing employees on the overtime they were due through complex shift systems.

The new agreement includes new provisions on health and safety. For instance, wardens now have to work in pairs in the evenings and in certain areas, which are still being identified. They will also be given sun block when working outdoors.

Furthermore, wardens would not need to pay for a licence renewal and a refresher course every year but would instead undergo 50 hours of training annually.

Mr Greenland said the security sector was in a “disastrous state” because employers were not interested in working conditions.

He said he hoped the exercise undertaken in the case of wardens would serve to include certain basics in work conditions and eliminate, once and for all, precarious jobs.