The role of a Security Guard during labour-management disputes
The role of a Security Guard during labour-management disputes
A Security Guard may not physically impede any legal action taken by any individual on the site. You may ask trespassers to leave the site but in the event of a legal strike your role is to facilitate polite communication between strikers and the public. Do not make judgments, voice an opinion, or make comments concerning the nature of the action. Be courteous and respectful at all times. You are an agent of the owner with regard to the security of the property only. Labour disputes usually involve employees who will be on site regularly after the dispute is settled. Chances are that you will encounter striking workers on the premises after the dispute has been resolved. At that time their status will have changed and they will be either employees or visitors to the site. Your job is to prevent harm to the site and the people visiting in any capacity, for the duration of the labour dispute.
Management has the right to attend a site, even during a labour dispute. As a Security Guard you job is to ensure that managers are able to gain access to the site when necessary. This is usually done by performing your regular duties as a Security Guard. However, if striking workers attempt to physically interfere with management’s access to the site you may ask them to move. If they refuse, you must call the Police. Again, physical force is not to be used on any individual during a labour dispute. If possible, take the names and addresses of those who are blocking access and make note of the dispute, in detail, in your memo book. Remain calm and professional at all times.
During a labour dispute, picketers have a right to public protest provided they do not enter the property to do so. Typically, a picket will be set up on the road leading onto the site. The strikers may have certain rights to access areas of the site during a strike. This happens in cases of university strikes where pickets are set-up on private property and roadways leading in and out of the campus. Strikers have a right to disseminate information. In order to do so, they frequently slow down the flow of traffic. As a Security Guard, it is your job to safeguard the physical welfare of people on site. If drivers become aggressive you may ask strikers to leave the roadway for their own safety. They may or may not choose to comply. It is important that you make every effort to ensure the strikers understand the risks they assume by ignoring your requests. Having done everything you can to maintain the safety of the site and those who visit it, you have fulfilled your responsibility.
The owner of the site has a right to expect the site be left clean and unharmed by the striking workers’ presence. Should you encounter a striking worker engaged in vandalism of any kind, you are authorized to ask the workers to leave the site and/or to make an arrest. Criminal activity calls for Police intervention. If behavior gets out of hand, call for the Police.
