[flashgordon1952]

there seems to be something really going wrong with the employment of security guards .
1. not enough qualified persons have been taken on or even interviewed , this is due to the background checks that are needed yet the dept that deals with it has in fact sacked many staff (enhanced checks)
2. G4S has made a complete mess of things because they was not told until very late about how many secuirty guards that would needed.
3 the home office was caught on the hope because the defence ministry have got riid of more military personnel than first thought. (again this had a bearing on the fact the aircraft carriers being built was late in ordering them (due to govt depty cockups).
4. it would make a great story in a book of fiction if the whole affair was not true .
Have a feeling someones head will go for this complete mess that has happened.
what makes things really silly is that yu have the worlds largest employer of secuity ersonnel (one of) yet they have real problems getting there act together.
my view is very easy "get the professionals" ie the army and military and police to do it and not what one could say a bunch of amateurs doing it.

[Early Bird]

G4S have had YEARS to organise this!

The only person to blame for this - was the person in Government who actually gave them the contract all those years ago.......

G4S are useless, and I'd prefer to be stopped and searched by Military personnel, as they know exactly what to look for!!!!! unlike G4S.

There is approx. 2.5 million people unemployed and STILL G4S cannot find enough people to work for them - I'm sure not all of the 2.5 million unemployed would fail a CRB.

A massive c*ck-up!!!!

Those Military people who are having to take this up, should be given the free tickets for the games that were going to the VIP/MPs etc.......

So does anyone know who it was that gave G4S the contract in the first place????

[PrincessEssex]

Security is tight under g4s and is far from lax but yes, they cannot cope and need more numbers across all London 2012 venues.
Seconded for the person who would prefer military anyway - I would agree with this wholeheartedly.
And also agree g4s have had years but I don't want people thinking you can just walk into the venues/park/village with anything. You can't!!

[Sinking feeling]

Originally Posted by Early Bird

G4S have had YEARS to organise this!

A massive c*ck-up!!!!

Precisely.

The cost of supplying soldiers must be met by G4S; and they must pay the real cost ie military personnel cost more than inexperienced, poorly trained members of the public on minimum wage.

[Si_Crewe]

Pretty amazing isn't it?

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it'll be revealed that somebody at G4S is an old school chum of somebody in the home-office and they've made a lot of money from the contract.

[shackfan]

I presume G4S are the same company as Group 4 who a few years ago had a few high profile cockups in a short space of time.

[I, Candy]

Originally Posted by Si_Crewe

Pretty amazing isn't it?

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it'll be revealed that somebody at G4S is an old school chum of somebody in the home-office and they've made a lot of money from the contract.

G4S have made healthy donations to the Conservative party. Just sayin'.

[Si_Crewe]

Originally Posted by I, Candy

G4S have made healthy donations to the Conservative party. Just sayin'.

Uhuh.

It's just kind of annoying the way they'll now be saying "G4S will be paying the bills for any public-sector workers drafted into security at the olympics so it's all good".

It's like the old "Lend me £1 but only give me 50p. That way you'll owe me 50p and I'll owe you 50p so we can call it quits" con on a grand scale.

[Ber]

I love the way its being advertised to any would-be terrorist that security is going to be utter shite during the olympics.

Maybe its a double bluff!!

[BomoLad]

I don't get why we've waited until 2 weeks before the game starts for the government to step in.

[Si_Crewe]

Originally Posted by BomoLad

I don't get why we've waited until 2 weeks before the game starts for the government to step in.

Cos it's taken until now for G4S to admit that they've cocked it up.

[Inkblot]

Sounds like they tried to get away with treating experienced people as if they were school-leavers, and it didn't work:

A former police sergeant who signed up to work for G4S at the Olympics has told how he withdrew his application over fears the recruitment process was "totally chaotic" and the firm was simply looking for cheap labour.

Robert Brown, who served for 30 years with Kent police, claimed he knew many other retired officers who had decided against working at the Games for the same reasons.

He said he had been given verbal commitments that staff would be paid £14 an hour, but that the contract he received said he would be entitled to £6.05 an hour for working outside the venues, and £8.50 for working inside the stadium.

"It is actually very sad," Brown said. "I was looking forward to working at this historic event, but it would have been a waste of my time. - Guardian

[BomoLad]

Originally Posted by Si_Crewe

Cos it's taken until now for G4S to admit that they've cocked it up.

But the lack of government knowledge of this fact before now is worrying. Did they give G4S absolute trust? Given the scale of the event that's a hell of a risk.

Presumably these problems if the process was observed, would have been foreseen weeks if not months ago.

[Si_Crewe]

Originally Posted by BomoLad

But the lack of government knowledge of this fact before now is worrying. Did they give G4S absolute trust? Given the scale of the event that's a hell of a risk.

Presumably these problems if the process was observed, would have been foreseen weeks if not months ago.

I suspect that milestones and staged payments ensured it was in G4S's best interests to not admit anything until the last possible moment.

[elliecat]

I think G4S tried to get a blanket security licence for all their staff thinking that they wouldn't have to get each individual member of staff licenced, no doubt they thought they could get away with what they do at Wimbledon and just call them stewards or something and only have a certain number of properly licenced guards. Unfortunately I believe they were told that each member of staff had to have their own licence and they now don't have time(it took my partner two months just to get his SIA licenced renewed) to get everyone licenced in time for the Olympics. It's a big cock-up.

[Inspiration]

Wonder how long it will be before one of the tabloids sneaks a 'bomb' into the park again.

[thefairydandy]

As sson as I heard the headline I said, 'What, so they couldn't bully people into working in terrible conditions for next to nothing without training them?' and I haven't found myself proved incorrect yet...

[Si_Crewe]

Heh,

Just clicked a Youube video and there's an advert for "Get Licensed" which is, apparently, a company who specialise in getting people certified for security work.

In the ad' they're making a big deal about how there's 20,000 job vacancies for the olympics.
Well, that's great.
Pay maybe £1,000-odd (I have no idea) to get the certification - assuming it's even possible they could train 20,000 people between now and when the olympics start - and then get a whopping 3 weeks work out of it which will probably just about cover the cost of what you spent on the training.
Why would you not go for such a terrific offer?

[horwichallstars]

Really bad project management by whover was working for LOGOC. I'm a PM by trade, 'I would have expected to have seen names, schedules, and everythin weeks & weeks ago. Working in ICT, you never take a contractors word for it ......

[Zuko]

I went to the interview day on Tuesday in Glasgow for G4S had everything I needed but they could not proceed with my application becase of the letter D, yes D, it was missing from my national insurance number from a letter that I got from the tax office. I asked if they were having a laugh and they said for security purposes they needed it. They wasted my time effort and money to go to this in the hope of getting earnings, but alas I'm ****ed again!!!

[epm-84]

G4S do a half arsed job as station ticket inspectors for Northern Rail. They say valid tickets aren't valid and even stop train drivers from going on to platforms asking them for their ticket!

[LifeOfBryan]

"not enough qualified persons have been taken on or even interviewed"

And I will tell you why!

I have in the past, done years in retail security. I got my first job in it after the Job centre supplied a training course which ended up with a City and Guilds and a Cito certificate. (Those were the ones needed at the time and with them I sailed into my first job)

Now that the new needed certificate is a SIA one, during every short period of unemployment for years I have been asking them flatly for SIA training and every time they have refused and said "Oh we don't do that any more. You could see if the company is willing to pay for it.)

So that is why there is now a shortage as the Job centre doesn't send people on training courses any more.

[elliecat]

the other problem is that they have recruited A'level students and you have to be 18 to get an SIA licence which a lot of these aren't. It is exactly what they did at wimbledon (and called the Security stewards) so they aren't even proper security staff.

[thefairydandy]

Army staff getting tickets would be pretty low on my list of demands. It's the principle of coming of a tour of duty and then being Shanghai'd into working when you're supposed to be spending time with your family and may have the rare chance for a family holiday.

Plus free tickets? With two weeks to go, 7000 ticket plus (assuming 2 at least per 3500 army staff) should NOT be available to just throw around.

[LifeOfBryan]

Come to think of it, Army personal are not SIA trained ether. They are not trained in Civil Law as they have no use for it. Their law is "I have a big gun, do as I say" which is useful for them as that is more needed in their job.