When can we expect the current Government to take a firm stance on the Working Time Directive? After what seems like a lifetime's worth of deliberation and procrastination, the UK's private security companies are still in the dark pending a review of the regulations due to take place this October.

What we do know is that reports from the European Commission (EC) suggest Brussels mandarins to be in favour of a compromise approach. The individual tasked with reviewing the regulations at the EC is alleged to have stated that the opt-out clause (allowing security officers to work more than 48 hours per week) currently 'enjoyed' by guarding contractors – and end users – is "unlikely" to remain the same. That said, it will not be abolished altogether.

According to an official press statement issued by Security House, major players from the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) and the Security Industry Authority (SIA) are gearing up to meet with Department of Trade and Industry officials later this month and thrash out the matter.

Earlier this year, BSIA chief executive David Dickinson made the Association's position on the Working Time Directive quite clear (News Update, SMT, March 2003, p7). In simple terms, Dickinson and his colleagues will be "supportive of any move that reduces [working] hours to reasonable levels".

That said, Dickinson has constantly stressed the need for any changes to be made in a "thoughtful, controlled and co-operative way". As he opines in the latest press statement: "We can't change a long hours culture in a few minutes."

The BSIA chief executive's concern is indicative of the anxiety pervading an industry in the vanguard of major transition. An industry that's used to providing forward prices on tenders for a period of up to three years hence. With uncertainty caused by the Working Time Directive and SIA licensing hanging heavy in the air, any sort of pre-planning at the present time is nigh on impossible.

As Stuart Lowden states in this month's Profile ('Lowden clear', pp16-20): "Any company signing long term contracts today on a 56-hour roster pattern needs shooting. It's commercial suicide, because in two years' time they'll not be able to recruit the staff to cover the job."

Life is tough enough for guarding contractors without New Labour's indecision. Make your move, Mr Blair. And do it now.

Source

SMT