The guards working conditions

Globally, the private security and community policing approach

was expected to transform the experience of law and order by
cultivating trust between the police and the people. According to
Ritchie et al (2007), the private security industry in Africa has
grown tremendously in recent years. Its growth is both a product
of privatization and response to its consequences. Public budgets
in some African nations were slashed as a requirement for loans
from international donors in the so-called Structural Adjustment
Programmes (SAPs) of the 1990s. All sorts of public services,
including police, declined. The resulting unemployment and
increased economic insecurity fueled an increase in crime.
Private companies stepped into the void and created thousands of
security jobs. Unfortunately, these jobs were characterized by
poor working conditions, low wages and rampant casualization.
These jobs are important to workers who value them as a crucial
source of income. However the ready pool of unemployed labour
coupled with industry competition for contracts which are largely
based on costs make some companies take the view that their
workers can be hired and fired at will, Ritchie et al (2007).

In South Africa, working conditions within the industry are a

matter that the government takes with serious concern according
to Visser and Ronan (1996). The South African Security Officers
Board has played a significant role in addressing the issue by
fining companies that do not adhere to working condition
standards. The Board however, only has the power to fine
offending companies and cannot seek restitution for affected
employees.

Most guards spend considerable time standing or patrolling their

assigned areas as well as front office work that involves
answering telephone calls. Other duties include driving and
guarding armoured vehicles and delivering cash and valuables to
banks, automated teller machines and retail establishments. In a
report containing findings of a fact-finding team convened by UNI

Property Services to investigate labour practices at Secure Force

Security in Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa in April 2007,
Ritchie et al (2007:4-5) found serious and ongoing violations of
labour laws. Many of these concerned overtime and time-off as
well as behaviour that have consigned workers to a hand-to-mouth
existence. The team concluded that Secure Force Security should
ensure its operations across the globe abide by local laws,
provide workers with living wages and family sustaining benefits,
and allow workers who want to organise unions to do so. Further,
it concluded that the best way for Secure Force Security to
demonstrate it is worthy of trust is to sign a global agreement
with UNI Global Union in which it commits to pay a living wage
adequate to sustain his/her family. It was also to provide social
protections, and recognize workers freedom to form unions.
Based on their findings, the research team urged organisers of
the 2012 London Olympics and the 2010 South Africa World Cup to
withhold any favourable consideration of the company as a
contractor until it commits to change its practices and improve
its global track record.

Mkutu and Sabala (2008) note that the security vacuum created by
the inability of the Kenyan state to provide adequate security to
its people has led to the proliferation of PSCs in the last two
decades. The Kenyan US Embassy bombing of 1998 in Nairobi was a
wakeup call to the relevant authorities of the urgent requirement
to beef up security at all levels. While the United Nations
police ratio of 1: 450 is the optimal requirement, Kenya
currently operates at 1:850 (Kenya Police Records, 2012)
underpinning the necessity to beef up policing. The recent 21st
September 2013 terror attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in the
upmarket Westlands suburb only served as a reminder to the
already under policed country. With over 67 fatalities, over 175
injured and more than 40 officially confirmed missing, the need
for PSCs to augment government policing cannot be underestimated.
These two tragic occasions have equally exposed the underbelly of
the private guarding industry; that guards work under difficult
conditions. The first casualties in any of such have always been
the guards and other security agents as exposed by the Westgate
incident. Records from the Kenya Police as well as from both KSIA
and KNPSWU show an increasing number of death of guards in line

of duty as they are the on the frontline of safeguarding property

against heavily armed gangsters. The poorly armed guards have
borne the brunt of all brutality visited on them by these
gangsters.

While the demand for these services continues going up, these
PSCs however remain unregulated in their operations from
recruitment of staff, majority of who are not adequately vetted,
to training and deployment and finally to supervision. Further,
they remain unregulated in terms of ensuring that guards work
under humane conditions like in other professions. In the
aftermath of Westgate Mall incident, the KNPSWU wants the Kenyan
government to fast track the Private Security Regulation Bill
that has been on the cards since 2010 ( KNPSWU, 2013). After the
Westgate attacks, spotlight instantly turned on the ability of
guards to prevent attacks of such magnitude when they are illtrained, equipped and poorly paid. Guards are also reported to
have no insurance cover at all despite the risks they are exposed
to. As noted in Chapter 1, KNPSWU confirmed that most security
firms offer little, if any professional training to the guards
which not only expose their clients to serious security risks,
but to them as well.

According to the union most guards are clueless about their

work as they just undergo casual training that primarily
involves marching around for one or two weeks, without detailed
training whatsoever about protecting life and property as well
as public relations.

Further, the overall working environment and conditions that

include tools of work and insurance cover for the guards have
also been questioned. The KNPSWU gives examples of the police who
escort Cash in Transit (CIT) and are always armed and with bullet
proof vests, while accompanying guards only have a baton to
repulse would-be attackers. Also, private mobile response teams
have no weapons while dealing with armed thugs. All these guards
are dangerously exposed in case of a shootout. The union has

asked the Kenyan government to provide specific private security

guards with guns and bullet proof vests while on duty with
priority going to guards in critical facilities such as airports,
seaports, embassies, law courts, banks and major supermarkets.
Those with guns are further recommended to be undercover and in
plainclothes providing cover for their colleagues. In Uganda,
Schedule III of the countrys regulations allows PSCs to use
authorized firearms mainly automatic and single shot guns
(Kirunda, 1995).

KNPSWU has further proposed a Private Security Regulatory

Authority to regulate the activities of firms that provide
consultancy, private investigation, surveillance, guard dog
services and training. It further calls for working conditions of
these guards continuously regulated to avoid overworking. In its
Code of Conduct towards delivering service, KSIA only
pledges/mentions to exercise all reasonable diligence in the
selection and assignment of personnel (KSIA). KSIA further aims
in setting standards to include personnel and equipment in
guarding services, electronic alarm services and Cash-In-Transit
(CIT). Nowhere on the KSIA manifesto is there any clause
touching on the working conditions of the guards. The Kenyan
guard therefore continues to work and live in squalid conditions,
sometimes walking many kilometers to and from their work station,
SRIC (2012).

The average working hours

In Kenya, security guards often work at least for twelve (12)

hours per day, with no lunch breaks hence eating while on duty
(Mkutu and Sabala2008). As required by Employment law Cap 226 of
the Laws of Kenya, guards are required to work for a total of
fifty two (52) hours per week and any additional hours to be
treated as overtime. This is rarely the case for the majority of
the security guards, as most of them have remained casual guards
irrespective of the duration of their service to the company

(KIPPRA, 2004). Cap 226 requires that, after working for three
months continuously, an employee should be confirmed as a
permanent employee of the company. This requirement has not been
met by most of the security companies. As mentioned before, most
guards spend considerable time standing or patrolling their
assigned areas and this is an energy sapping exercise as it leads
to fatigue. 12 hours of such reduces not only concentration of
this
guard, but impacts negatively on service delivery. According to
KIPPRA (2004; 110), the working conditions for most private
security personnel are not favourable. They are overworked by
being allocated various duties; they have no adequate time to
take leave, work for long hours and suffer from hunger while on
duty. Majority (86.1%) of respondents perceive their workload
as very high or high. Kimosop (2007) in her study on Labour
Turnover in Private Security Firms in Kenya, notes that long
working hours contributed to the high turnover. It is worth
noting that despite much literature as observed above, none
reports positively on how these long working hours have a bearing
on service delivery, hence the need for this study.

The average monthly wage

Guards working in the private security industry have historically

been badly paid and often work long hours. The British government
regulatory body, the Security Industry Authority (SIA),
identifies the issue as follows: There is a vicious circle of
low profitability leading to low spending on staff training and
low pay, leading to high staff turnover and high recruitment
costs

(Security Industry Authority, 2003: 16). In Africa some private

security companies secure contracts by undercutting competitors.
Undercutting is usually achieved by reducing a companys running
costs. One of the main ways of cutting costs is by the

underpayment of wages. In April 1996, new labour legislation in

South Africa compelled employers to limit working hours and
increase salaries, (Visser and Ronan, 1996). The problem was that
unscrupulous companies found it cheaper to pay a fine, than to
pay their employees the statutory minimum wage. Companies that
are illegally cutting costs by underpaying their employees often
also cut costs in other areas such as training. An underpaid
guard is susceptible and vulnerable to
temptations, which may not be limited to abetting theft at
workplace at extra small fees to sustain their families. This has
a negative impact on service delivery.

In Kenya, the unregulated nature of the private security sector

also allows for low wages for security guards. While there is a
stipulated minimum wage for the private security sector, one of
the countrys two industry associations, the PSIA, is actively
boycotting the regulation and continues to pay well below the
minimum wage. Nevertheless, despite openly breaking the law, PSIA
members continue to sign new contracts with government offices,
(Abrahamsen and Williams, 2006). In a survey by KIPPRA (2004:
109), security personnel observed that majority of them are
demotivated due to low pay and delays in payment. Tellingly, a
recent survey guards listed insecurity as their second main
concern, topped only by complaints over low wages (Wairagu et al,
2004). While salaries and wages of the security guards are on the
whole guided by the protective security wages council guidelines,
they are rarely met. These are the agreements entered into
between the trade union and a majority of firms in the industry.
According to Mkutu and Sabala, (2008), most security firms
actually claim as much as Kshs 20,000.00 a month for security
services, but pay the guards a meagre Kshs 4,000.00 (USD 57).
While the Kenyan government gives minimum wage guidelines
published annually, most security companies pay below the minimum
requirement.

According to the KNPSWU, most leading firms pay an average

monthly salary of between Kshs 5,000 and 18,000. The situation is
despicable in many mushrooming security firms. Some, despite

securing multi-million contracts with clients, pay below the

governments minimum wage. KNPSWU has documented reports of a
number of night guards found basking daylong in
the sun or sleeping at the Nairobis Uhuru Park, all in the vein
of not being able to afford bus fare back to their residential
quarters. They would rather while away the day in the park and
report on duty at night as a cost cutting measure. None of the
writers notes that guards are adequately remunerated for the
services offered in line of their duties.

RELATED LITERATURES
A. Foreign
In the review of related literature and studies, the researcher
found works which are closely relevant to the topics being
undertaken. The work of five of the many contemporary behavioral
scientists appears to have the most relevance to guard functions.
Three of these five behaviorists are, McGregor, Hertzberg, and
Argyris. A brief summary of their ideas is included below:
McGregor's key concept is that every executive relates to
subordinates on the basis of a set of assumptions which are
divided into two different theories. The first theory is that the
average worker is by nature lazy, dislikes work, lacks ambition,
avoids responsibility, is passive, easily led, gullible and must
be molded to meet the needs of the organization. This is done by
exhortation, driving, punishing, and rewarding on the assumption
that the worker is indifferent to the needs of the organization
and is capable of self-discipline.
Second theory is that work is as natural as play and it can be
satisfying or punishing, depending upon the circumstances. The
theory holds that not only are individuals capable of assuming
greater responsibility, but they seek it in the proper work
environment. They are also able to exercise self-direction.
Motivation does not come down from the top, but exists, along
with ingenuity and creativity, among the workers themselves.
According to McGregor, most employee relations problems are a

result of the way in which the workers have been conditioned over
the years, rather than because of any lack of basic abilities.
It is significant to my topic in the sense that McGregor's first
theory is personified in the hard-driving authoritarian manager
who strictly implements company policies and instructions to get
the job done well, while the second theory represents
involvement, contribution, and commitment by all of the workers
to get the job well-done. In relation to my topic, security
guards' love of work or laziness, lacks ambition, avoidance of
responsibility, passiveness, lack of caution, guards' working
condition, ability to exercise self-direction, motivation, or
assumption of responsibility, are very important ways and means
to get the satisfaction or non-satisfaction of the management and
clients in the delivery of security services.
Herzberg's major contribution is in disproving that the removal
of the causes of job dissatisfaction and low morale will
automatically result in the improvement, and that motivation and
lack of motivation are merely opposite ends of the same scale.
According to Herzberg, the causes of lack of motivation and job
dissatisfaction must be removed, but this will not necessarily
motivate an individual to improve job performance. Ideally, the
manager should work to provide a proper balance, while allowing
for individual preferences.
This is somewhat significant in relation to my study because it
discussed the fact that it is not a surefire solution to just
eliminate job dissatisfaction and low morale among workers to
obtain improvement of performance, but rather the management
should also inspire and motivate its personnel, be authoritarian
in the implementation of policies, while giving them work that
fits to their preferences depending upon the circumstances.
On the other hand, Argyris' theory is that traditional
organizational principles, structures, and procedures are
incompatible with the mental health of employees. Such classical
ideas as task specialization, chain of command, unity of
direction, tight budgets, and controls are calculated to make
subordinate passive and submissive, allowing them little
direction of their own work.
This theory is significant to this study because according to
Argyris, as a result of these traditional organizational
principles, structures, and procedures, workers become
unconcerned, engaged in self-protective defense mechanisms, or

fight the system. . As applied to security guards, these

principles somehow affect the delivery of security services to
most potential and incumbent clients.
A study for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) by the Institute for Social Research, University
of Michigan, relates the high and low performance of workers in a
high stress job. NIOSH defined high stress job as having the
following characteristics: "Low utilization of one's abilities,
low participation, low job complexity, limited opportunities for
future advancement and the lowest levels of social support."
It is significant to my study because it discussed the effects of
high stress job to the workers ability to carry out a standard
level of performances that is expected of him.
B. Local:
According to Prime Chrysler Reyes Velarde, a security guard is
an individual who works in establishment. In introduction to
Private Security, security guard defined those self-employed
individual and founded business entities and group of persons
providing security service to relating clients for fee, for
individual or entity that needs security or employs them, or for
themselves in order to protect their person private property or
interest from many types of hazards.
Maintaining safety and security of all valuable property is not
an easy
task, more often the unskilled and less educated security guards
can easily get confused and cheated by the criminals and robbers
who perpetrated their planned activities and escaped freely after
all.
This statement is related to my topic because it gives
information about the life of security guard while he or she is
in service; that proper training is another important matter in
order to deliver efficient and responsible services to the
clients.
Another topic is leadership. The study of a security
organization
together with its efficiency in the operation and administration
cannot help itself but to deal with one of the major issues such
as "Leadership".
According to Antonio M. Encarnacion , a Certified Security
Professional, he mentioned that in some books, leadership is

defined as the "act of influencing and directing people in a way

that will win their obedience, confidence, respect and loyal
cooperation in achieving a common objective".
Some say "it is the ability and readiness to inspire, direct and
influence the action of others". To lead means to guide or show
the way. It follows that a guard supervisor must have the
leadership ability to carry out his assignments and functions.
It is significant to my study because leadership definitely
affects business and services. Good leadership earns respect
while poor leadership produces complaints and disobedience. Lazy
leaders create lazy subordinates, and responsible leaders mold
responsible followers.
According to C/Insp. Cruz, security guard is not a law enforcer
like a policeman. However, during period of emergency, the
Director General of the Philippine National Police or the City or
Municipal Mayor, as Director of Civil Defense, may take direct
orders from the Chief of Police in maintaining Peace and Order,
prevention of law violation and preservation of life and property
for the duration of the emergency. A deputized guard has a police
authority within his assigned area of responsibility.
This statement is related to my topic because it states the
duties of security guard to their assigned area. It also
emphasizes the security guards' perception that, "In our
community today, security guards are the unseen heroes of our
time, that through their presence alone, crime and criminalities
are reduced, neutralized or prevented".
RELATED STUDIES
The researcher aims to develop his study in order to establish
the credibility of his chosen topic and to gather all the
necessary information and evidences that will help him to prove
his study, and the researcher will exert his effort and support
this topic in finding all related studies from the collections of
the undergraduate thesis.
Few studies of great philosophers described their belief that one
of the most persistent problems bothering every organization is
personnel management.

On Part IV Chapter 9 of the Guard Operation Book, page 9-55,

described that better compensation and benefits are not the only
solution to the high and low performance of security personnel.
To improve guard performance, an alert management must deal with
each of the underlying issues ? pay, training, supervision, and
deployment. But there are sub-issues that are as important as the
main ones. In the training area for example, it is not simply a
question of more information to be imparted to the trainees or
techniques practiced so that the security operations could run
fairly well. Neither only the security personnel's working
environment nor increased wages and benefits would resolve the
fluctuating performance of the security operations. The morale of
field personnel must also be high for sustained effective output,
and it must also be equally high for the security staff and all
employees of the organization as a whole.
According to Cachero, the efficiency of an organization is
determined by the level of performance of its personnel. Thus,
maintaining a high level of morale among its personnel is
significantly very important. Satisfied and contented people work
and perform better .
This statement is related to my topic because of the fact that
a uniformed security guard has a high stress job and therefore
their morale must be constantly high. Stress factors and low
morale lead to behavior patterns which can adversely affect job
performance and the physical and mental health of the individual
contribute to high and low performance level of the security
agency's manpower.
U.S. News Reporter Bob Henelly, NEW YORK, NY July 18, 2006,
reported: "...guard and dozens of others interviewed by WNYC
complained that they go for months and longer without receiving
vacation pay, sick time and other benefits called for in their
collective bargaining contract with their agency."
One security guard interviewed said, "I secure a landmark
building and I find it very aggravating to know that at the end
of the week I will bring home a paycheck that is less than 3OO
dollars after taxes. New York City is a costly city. I have to
pay rent, buy food, pay bills and it is hard to do with such less
pay. To top it off the agency does not provide me with any
medical insurance. I feel that my dignity and my self-respect
have been diminished you know. I have nothing to show for my
children while these guys in the office can go to the Poconos, to
Great Adventure and have a great time and still have something to
show for themselves as I am still struggling waking up early in

the morning and coming over to work."

Henelly's interview with the guards is significant to my topic in
the sense that it touches the never-ending complaint of security
guards who were deprived of modest pay and benevolent benefits,
thereby triggering low utilization of guards' abilities, and low
participation in their guarding function, which is considered one
of the common problems encountered by most of the security guards
nowadays.
xxxx Security & Detective Agency has been working hand in hand
with its security guards for at least six years since it was
created, initially perhaps with 30 security personnel and 3
office staff under its employ, then it progressed to more or less
200 guard forces in 2004 and a total of 600 in the current
economic year. It is logical to imagine an upward development
accumulated from the security personnel who maintained a
beneficial rapport with the agency and the clients. Security
guards who carried out their duties and responsibilities honestly
and credibly have been able to help the agency to reproduce more
clients at a greater rate than those who did not perform well in
their assigned tasks. Well-trained and disciplined security
guards are heritably the agency's marketing tools to keep clients
on the list and to produce more clients by "words-of-mouth" from
the clients themselves. However, vast numbers of performing
security guards not only within the xxxx Security Organization
but also with the other security agencies as a whole, have their
own economic needs to keep their families on their toes; a great
number of them does keep and treasure their jobs regardless of
how low the salary it is, doing overtime at their supposed rest
days rather than relaxing themselves with their families.
According to Zenarosa, employees will make sacrifice for and be
loyal to the organization when they feel that their organization
is committed to their welfare, morale and well-being .
The beneficial sustenance for the guards under the xxxx security
administration has always been the clamor among the rank-andfile. Of a sample of 50 security guards admitted by the agency,
34% of them very strongly agreed that one of their main problems
is the delayed salary, which ranked 1 from the distribution of
responses, (see Table 2), also turned Rank 1 with 42% of the 50
respondents is their ineligibility to apply for government loans
and benefits such as SSS/ PhilHealth, allegedly due to agency's
unremitted contributions to concerned offices, thus, affecting
their morale and their performance, while 40% of economic
problems and indebtedness arising from overdue payment of their

salary, (see Table 4).

While there is a lack of solid statistical data, it can be
generally stated that many performance failures by security
guards are not primarily due to a skill deficiency as such. The
guard usually knew what to do but did not perform in the desired
manner for a variety of behavioral reasons. Therefore, the key to
improving the effectiveness of the guard operation is to remove
or lessen such obstacles to improved job performance such as
boredom, low use of abilities, low social status, low pay and
benefits , etc.
According to Salavaria , employing physically and psychologically
trained security guards can give the agency operators a great
deal of confidence and productivity. In the business sector,
security guards are the "secret business partner" of the
investors; for being the custodian or protectors of businessmen's
interests, assets and properties. For these, a contented security
guard may unwittingly provide valuable aid in the promotion of
security services by means of his impressive performance that is
often difficult to find when he is discontented with his job. In
our community today, security guards are the "unseen heroes" of
our time that through their presence alone, crime and
criminalities are reduced, neutralized or prevented.
This statement is significant to my topic since it emphasizes the
importance of the guards' best performance as well as the
management's concern to the general welfare of its security
personnel and therefore, they must be given serious attention.
Guard training has sometimes been suggested as the ultimate
solution to almost any security performance in the guard
operation. But in many cases training may be the wrong solution
and unnecessary expense. The conventional approach to dealing
with a performance deficiency is to assume that "more training"
is necessary. The difficulty with this approach is that "more
training" may not be addressing the root cause of the performance
deficiency if the stress factors of the job are overlooked. The
erring security personnel may have the necessary skills but the
combination of personal and job-related stresses provides greater
rewards for nonperformance than for performance. Performance
failures may be a direct result of undesirable behavior patterns
that have been unconsciously reinforced.