The first time someone advised him to devote himself to private security, Roberto Martínez’s reaction was not too enthusiastic. “At first I did not like, it has no good image, it is not a job that first attracts attention,” admits this 38 -year -old from Madrid, who has been working in the sector.
Before the brown uniform was angry for the first time and adjust the black baton in the belt, Martínez had had a working life, in his own words, “unstable.” University Diploma, like so many others of his generation emigrated to the United Kingdom when the 2008 crisis broke out. On his return it was of work at work without establishing in any sector. The last one at the airport.
“At first I did not like it, it has no good image, it is not a job that first attracts attention.”
“Imagine with the pandemic what happened with that job,” Martínez recalls, while preparing the backpack before leaving his work as a security guard in a pharmacist. “I saw that it was a course that costs relatively little to get out and then, if you know English, they will always take you to multinational companies, in control of accesses and services of this type. In Madrid there is a lot of demand for that.”
The private security sector in Spain has been chaining annual growth since 2015, continuing with a year of delay the general economic recovery of the national economy. This solid growth of a sector that already has more effective – that of 90,000 – that any of the State Security Bodies It is leading to an increase in the demand for workers. A labor that, however, companies in the sector are having difficulty finding.
The low base salaries, which require marathon days of overtime to reach competitive salaries, the danger inherent in the activity and social stigma that drags the security guard profession are making very few young people opt for a sector that raffles the available workers.
“I try to say that I am a security guard, I say that I work in the world of security for a technological company, or whatever, but I do not like to say it,” Martínez admits. “The salary is not very good, but doing good extra hours and with pluses, you can put in a figure that does not reach 2,000, but hey, it can approach.”
“Have you achieved your long -awaited stability?”
– “It is not a special challenging job, but at the level of stability and tranquility, yes, I am happy.”
Professional training for security technicians
One day, 24 years ago, Cristina López took off the apron, threw him to the ground and resigned from his stuffing. Upon leaving the establishment, still recovering from the “lock” that had made him give up, he called a friend to ask for advice and this was clear: “Come to private security.” A few days later, López was Security Vigilante, the same work that continues to exercise with 47 years.
“Formerly it was what there was, there was a lot 16% of women who are part of this sector so masculinized. Since then he has worked in shopping centers, in works, in offices, in access control and a long list of surveillance work. He has never had a problem to find a position in the sector.
“There is a lot of work. If they say goodbye to a guard today, as it is, that there are no guards, it has to be because it has done something super fat,” says López, who says that “there is so much demand for employment that it is common for it to large companies in the sector offer welcome packs of up to 1,000 euros “for Attract the low workforce available.
The entry to the sector have varied since the beginning of the century, when Pérez joined private security. Currently, to obtain the tip, it is necessary to overcome a theoretical examination that consists of answering between 80 and 100 multiple choice questions and a physical aptitude test. Since September, in addition, seven institutes of Aragon, the Canary Islands and Community Valencian have begun to impart a new professional training in security technician, a claim of both employer and unions in the sector that is expected to expand to the rest of the country.
“We hope that it is a qualitative leap in the formation of the people and in the analogous recognition for citizenship derived from that greater training,” says Eduardo Cobas, general secretary of the employer of the Aproser sector. “It is hard for us to find workers, as it costs all sectors where there is a task that implies interaction with citizens, but especially in technological profiles, which are increasingly demanded. Anyone who chooses to train this will not have a problem None.
Labor precariousness in small businesses
López is already a veteran of the sector that is not seen doing another profession, but Understand the lack of a generational relief. “It is normal for young people not to work on it because the salary is also quite shabby. They add you, insult you, they spit you … I have come to suffer a wrist fracture,” says the Madrid worker. “I have children and come on, neither by Ace, nor by Asomo. This is the last thing I would tell them to throw forward.”
This work precariousness is especially concentrated in small businesses – 85% of companies in the sector have less than 50 workers – many of which are known among workers as “pirates”. The unions denounce that it is in this broad spectrum where the illegalities and situations of labor exploitation that generate the bad reputation of the sector are accumulated.
“There is an atomization of companies in Spain and, on many occasions, what they exercise among them is an unfair competition, based on reduced prices, in monopolizing customers at a low price, and that leads us to constant breaches with their templates,” he declared Diego Giráldez responsible for private security of UGT, the majority union of the sector. “We are in a two -speed sector. We have large companies installed in the sector many years ago, where working conditions, although there is any breach, are respected and then we find another number of very important companies that have led to the sector to the practice of ‘everything is worth’ “.
“There is an atomization of companies in Spain and, on many occasions, what they exercise among them is an unfair competition”
In his long career in the world of private security, Fernando Sanandrés has gone through all kinds of companies. This 56 -year -old professional arrived in the sector in 1989, from the Civil Guard.
“I came for money, at that time this sector was worth it. I won more a jury guard and we didn’t have the ETA behind,” says Sanandrés. “Smallie It marks the agreement its price, the nightlife, feast.
A veteran worker like him, he says, has been able to accumulate seniority and consolidate good working conditions. But like López, I would not recommend to his offspring on his way either. “If they had not studied, they had no choice, because this would not be a bad option. As long as they would like to make this your profession,” says Sanandrés. “But today it is very difficult to make this your profession.”
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