News

Geneva October 7 -  UNI Global Union today filed a complaint against Spanish security company Prosegur with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. UNI asked the Council to intervene because we fear for the personal safety of staff in its  Colombia and Peru operations.

The decision to bring the complaint comes after a catalogue of threats to Prosegur trade union leaders in both Colombia and Peru, culminating in a violent physical attack on a Peruvian union leader.

UNI has contacted the Spanish OECD National Contact Point in Madrid and asked for its intervention after Luis Cardenas, the General Secretary of the Prosegur Cash in Transit union was viciously assaulted near his Lima home.

The complaint to the UN Human Rights Council sets out how the attack followed the distribution of anonymous pamphlets within secure Prosegur cash-in-transit facilities in Lima. The pamphlets identified and ridiculed union leaders including Cardenas, even identifying his home. Anti-union pamphlets have also been distributed on Prosegur’s premises in Colombia.

When Prosegur’s management failed to take action or reply to UNI’s concerns over the Cardenas case, an international petition was launched, demanding Prosegur to take all steps to end this atmosphere of anti-union hostility spreading across its operations.  Almost seven thousand people have put their name to the petition.

UNI Global Union thanks the seven thousand who have signed petition calling for Prosegur to take immediate action

UNI Global Union’s General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “I would like to put on record our appreciation to all those who have signed the petition asking Prosegur to take action to root out the causes of what is a clearly a threatening environment and to take remedial measures. Our conclusion is that Prosegur has not taken our concerns seriously enough and that is why we have now taken this matter to the UN Human Rights Council.”

Jennings concluded,  “We demand that Prosegur takes immediate action to regulate its workplace. UNI has made it clear that we seek dialogue not litigation to resolve these matters which are about the right to work and live free from fear.”

 UNI has contacted the Company on five occasions since April 2014 about these concerns which were answered by threats of litigation.  One Colombian Prosegur employee has been sued for sharing his story with UNI, an example of bullying and intimidation. UNI stands by these individuals who are being vicitimised by Prosegur.