Approaching eateries and banks in Lagos and other parts of the country, security operatives in uniforms, popularly known as corporate guards, have resorted to making ends meet by asking customers for tips.
Some of the guards told NEXT this was to help them cope with their pay.
“We are still here because there are no other jobs for us to do”, one of the guards said last week in Lagos on condition of anonymity.
“I have worked for over 20 years. My salary was 300 naira when I started. Everything was good then. They even negotiated with clients to increase guards’ salary. Now, all of that had stopped, especially now that they have more clients. No medical and retirement benefits. You are not allowed to go on leave, and nothing is given to you when your appointment is terminated. It took me over twenty years to be able to earn N20,000 as monthly pay. For over five years now, some guards have not received increase in pay. This is modern slavery.”
The complaint of the guards is almost the same. It is either of poor salary as a result of their company taking too much percentage from what the clients are paying, or absence of benefits.
Some of the guards working with Real Assets, Halogen Security Limited, and Prudential Guard also complained of late payment of salary and jostlings to be posted for proximity advantage.
A former corporate guard, Ejiro Abuwa, mourned what he called “marginalisation of corporate guards in the country.” Mr. Ejiro, who divided the private security companies into two: namely, downstream and upstream sectors, said there is no future for any one working as a corporate guard under private contract agreement.
‘I worked with two security outfits for 16 years. I started with Amnesty Security and I was with them for five years; I later left to join Prudential Guard, for which I worked within the capacity of security operative to supervisor until the time I left,’ he said.
‘One of the reasons I left was poor condition of service. No matter the time you put in, there is no pension; there is no gratuity. Up-stream simply means: the owners of the security outfits who handle the administrative departments where you have the CEOs and the Managers.
“And then you the down-stream, where you have the guards and their supervisors. Wherever the guard is posted, the client has no interest in him. If he sustains injury in the line of duty, he is on his own. Whatever the client does for him is on a compassionate ground,” Mr. Ejiro said.
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