One of New Zealand's largest unions has suggested the employee should have received more health and safety training
One of New Zealand’s largest unions has suggested that a lack of training could be partly to blame for the death of a security guard who was attacked in Auckland last week.
Serbian national Goran Milosavljevic was reportedly punched in the head during an altercation with a 17-year-old customer outside a Countdown store in Papakura.
Jill Ovens – industry coordinator for E tū, the union which represents security guards – said individuals within the industry often receive minimum training despite the dangerous nature of their jobs.
"The mandatory training that they have to do to get their licence is very, very limited, one or two days,” she said. “There is an element of how to handle conflict but that's the main role they have. They have no powers like the police do to arrest or anything like that.”
Ovens also took aim at the security firm which took over the Countdown contract from competitor First Security last year.
"Allied Security doesn't engage with the union at all," Ovens told The AM Show on Friday morning. “We try to initiate for bargaining to get into discussions about things like health and safety and training which would protect the guards more but they refuse to engage with the union."
Ovens also said E tū has developed a training program with other employers in the security industry but suggested that Allied was reluctant to participate.
“When we asked Allied to be part of this to upskill their staff, they said that if the client requires them to have an NZQA qualification, they just go and hire someone whose already got it."
Allied Security did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
