Certis CISCO Security and the Union of Security Employees (USE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today, inking a milestone partnership as the largest private security agency in Singapore joins a community of more than 100 other security agencies already unionised under USE.
This win-win outcome follows discussions between both parties with the common objective of ensuring constructive and positive labour-management relations, as well as advancing the interest of employees. This includes ensuring that employees continue to be treated fairly, engaged on the ground, and motivated to contribute in their jobs and to the company.
The MOU will see more than 6,000 eligible employees, or about 60 per cent of Certis Group’s workforce, being offered membership into the Labour Movement. Eligible employees refer to all non-management and specialist grade employees of the Certis Group who are confirmed and on permanent contracts (except management grade employees, all auxiliary police officers and confidential employees).
Against the context of a “Nation of Opportunity” outlined by President Tony Tan in his recent Parliament address which envisioned that every Singaporean can succeed whatever his starting point; where pathways upwards are open to all at all stages of life, this MOU provides a stepping stone towards making a profession in the security industry one to be proud of. Through developing best practices that hopefully can be adopted across the industry, the tripartite partners will strive toward creating better jobs and ultimately better lives for our security officers.
Both Certis CISCO and USE are in agreement that the MOU will allow an effective platform to build and strengthen labour-management relations. As part of the MOU, a union-management selected committee will be set up to promote the welfare and well-being of Certis CISCO staff who become members of the union, and complement the existing grievance handling process.
In addition, this committee will function to provide workplace advice to workers, facilitate interactions between employees and management to complement existing communication and feedback channels, discuss issues pertinent to employees such as training and skills upgrading to help boost work productivity, as well as drive membership growth. The committee will be supported by an Industrial Relations Officer of USE.
Mr Paul Chong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Certis CISCO Security said: “as an employer of choice, our organisation has constantly reviewed policies and initiatives in the interests of our staff. Last year, we implemented a wage restructure exercise and the net pay increment is $18.1 mil per annum. And we have also been supportive of the efforts by NTUC and USE in looking after the well-being of employees in general. As such, we are gratified to be able to take our cooperation further, with the MOU, to further enhance our current efforts and improve our employment conditions and attractiveness.”
Mr Hareenderpal Singh, President of USE, said: “We are honoured to be given the opportunity to be a trusted voice for more workers in the security industry as we welcome Certis CISCO Security into the Labour Movement family. This is indeed a mutually beneficial partnership and we look forward to working closely with management to strengthen labour-management relations and ultimately further the interest of our workers.”
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