On working hours

SIR – I wholeheartedly agree with Nicholas Batchelor's comments in the January edition of SMT ('Guarding on a level playing field', Letters, p17), having been in favour of a 48-hour working week – or less – for security operatives even before the Working Time Directive and the Private Security Industry Act first saw the light of day.

Here we all are, doing our level best to bring in genuinely better standards of training for security officers, improved holiday entitlements and pensions as well as health plans, and yet we're still stuck in this rut in 2004 of a standard 60-hour week minimum for the average security officer.

We have to drag this industry of ours kicking and screaming out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st Century where it belongs. As Nicholas suggests, appropriate revisions to BS 7499 would be a good start.

It's totally frustrating that, here in the UK, we have some of the very best regulations for Health and Safety practice and medical care without having to have any insurance, and yet operatives in an up-and-coming industry boasting three times more manpower than the police service can muster are being forced into working ridiculous hours to earn a living wage.

We all know that clients are facing increased costs for their security, but the benefits will be apparent through better training, better hourly rates of pay and thus less staff churn – one of the most costly elements for us as security employers. Let's make a stand now... Starting with the major guarding companies and introduce a 48-hour week standard for all operatives on old and new contracts.

Can the likes of the British Security Industry Association, the National Security Inspectorate and the International Professional Security Association ask their members to comply? Our industry is going through its largest change ever. We'd all like to see that change executed in the right way. If we want to attract top calibre people to work within security then we have to offer them a good package. If the pay and benefits for a security officer are no better than that for a kitchen porter – no offence to kitchen porters intended! – but the hours are longer, we'll soon see applications start to dry up.

If that happens, the usual staff churn rate will prevail and we'll continue to do our image as an industry no good whatsoever.