KINGSTON, Jamaica— Several placard-bearing security guards staged a protest in the middle of Cross Roads in Kingston Monday morning.

The guards say they are protesting the injustices in their sector regarding years of poor treatment, long work hours without the benefit of overtime pay, and the absence of other benefits accorded to workers categorised as employees under the law.

“Slavery has been abolished, it is full time for it to stop. We are being ill-treated by these companies. A lot of people see the injustice and they are silent. I won’t be silent. We are all human beings, our rights should not be trampled upon and that is what has been happening,” said Leroy Morris, a security officer, who held up a placard declaring ‘Emancipate ourselves from mental slavery’.

“Security companies know what we are supposed to be paid yet we have to take them to court individually. Enough is enough. It is hard for us to be standing on location for 48 hours, for 36 hours and at the end of day we don’t know what we’re gonna do for our families. I am not afraid. I am not a slave and no longer will I be treated like one,” he added.

Security guards employed in the private security industry recently celebrated the ruling by the Supreme Court which, in effect, now means they are entitled to the benefits applicable to employees. However, change has been slow in coming.

READ: Court ruling in NHT/Marksman case causing jitters in private security sector

The Supreme Court ruled that security guards engaged by Marksman Limited are employees and not contract workers and that the company should begin paying its portion of National Housing Trust (NHT) statutory contributions immediately.

The wide-ranging labour and legal implications of the ruling theoretically imply that every other provision in law that applies to the workers would be applicable to them, and should equate to better treatment by security companies of its employees.

– Claude Mills