A security guard's monthly basic salary is $800. A cleaner earns $1,000.

In fact, a security guard's basic pay is at the bottom five percent of the lowest-paying jobs. His or her basic pay is less than a bellboy/ hotel porter ($1,200), petrol station attendant ($927) and plumber ($1,400).

The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), on behalf of the security guards, has been in talks with security associations since last month to raise security guards' basic pay to at least $1,000.

However, NTUC, the security guards firms and the union of security guards have reached an impasse: The salary of security guards cannot be raised because no one knows who should budge first.

Cause of impasse

Security firms worry that higher basic salary for security guards will increase overhead costs.

And companies insist that they already have salary structures for security guards that factor in flexibility and their own way of dishing out rewards to promote staff.

Plus, a higher basic salary won't solve the shortage in manpower labour.

So, a rule dictating a basic pay of $1,000 a month will only make it even harder to work around.

Difficult to value service rendered

Everyone will agree that security guards serve a preventive function. Very broadly.

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In economic terms, no one knows how to price the services of security guards.

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They deter trespassing and burglary, which means they are an inconvenience to potential criminality, even though security guards cannot be relied on to catch trespassers and burglars in the event they need to chase them.

But then again, their job scope requires a bit of skill -- such as knowing how to operate and monitor the CCTV -- a job skill if there ever was one.

This leads to a quagmire: In economic terms, no one knows how to price the services of security guards.

Therefore, comparing security guards to Norton Antivirus is not facetious. It is the crux of the problem.

Why? Security guards -- like antivirus software -- are not necessary, but neither are they completely dispensable.

Everybody wants it but everybody's reluctant to pay for it.

Unattractive conditions

Having said that, there are many factors that make the job of a security guard very unattractive.

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By putting in more hours. They can work 12-hour shifts, six days a week and earn up to $1,700 a month.

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The main problem lies with the security guard's job scope. Hours are long and irregular. They work shifts, including graveyard shifts.

Overtime pay is the main contributor to higher basic pay for security guards, calculated at 1.5 times the regular pay.

The bulk of their salary comes from overtime work by clocking in 12 hours daily, six days a week.

If their salary has gone up, it is only because of longer hours.

And even with about 12,000 security guards being represented by a union -- the Union of Security Employees -- security guards do not have bargaining power as a collective to champion their own interests.

This makes security guard jobs unattractive. And no one wants to do it.

Suggestions for better job conditions 

Here are three suggestions to improve the job conditions of the security industry.

First, give the Security Tripartite Cluster (STC) the mandate to lead in the negotiations.

In Parliament this year, the Government announced that it will incorporate the progressive wage model for the security industry into its regulatory frameworks, with STC tasked to do so.  What is STC's role in the negotiations so far?

Second, enforce the "Best Sourcing" Practices which has seen its fair share of successes in the cleaning sector.

The Government has already taken the lead to buying from well-graded security agencies. These well-graded agencies are awarded a HR Quality Mark for performing well in employment practices. Will this ruling be implemented in the private sector?

Third, increase the professionalism of the security sector.

The security guards can upgrade their skills and reach higher salary benchmarks. This is also ideal from a national security standpoint. We will have a highly trained security sector that, unlike the Norton Antivirus, will be indispensable to our national hardware and software.

Featured Photo from Flickr

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