Securitas Direct under the microscope in Denmark
Dansikring Direct has 30,000 customers and Securitas is the second largest company in the Danish market. It handles distress calls and also sells alarm systems and provides customer service. Due to the access to confidential client information, strict rules apply for worker training and approval. All employees must complete a three-week course and obtain a certificate from the police.
Both of these have been largely ignored by Dansikring Direct. Ekstra Bladet reports that the company has approximately 80 employees and over the last few years appears to have relaxed their own security. According to their sources, over the last two years there have been 25 full time employees without either the proper training or police certificate. This situation made one of the employees report Dansikring Direct to the police.
The use of substitutes from employment agencies Proffice and Salix - which had not been approved by the police to provide such workers as they should be according to Danish law - was the decision that made Frank Johansen react. "We had been requested to train the substitutes on the job as they hadn’t passed the three-week course. Conditions are systematic and management was informed about everything. Yet, it happened anyway" he said.
Since April 2010 the company has used these substitutes, which has been placed at the 'control central' where you have access to all the clients’ information. A former employee told Ekstra Bladet that he got hired through Salix without having either the relevant training or the certificate from the police even though that he was able to find all information from all Dansikring Direct’s clients.
The Union: Clear violation of the law
There is no hesitation when ”Vagt-og Sikkerhedsfunktionærernes Fagforening” (the Guards’ Union) evaluates the working conditions in Dansikring Direct:
"It is a clear violation of the law covering guard and security companies; a law which is very easy to understand. There exists no possibilities for bringing in substitutes or obtain dispensation in any way," says President of the Guards’ Union John Dybart.
He has never before heard about the use of substitutes with access to sensitive information. He encourages the police to make unannounced visits in the business, which he believes needs to have both its regulation and its moral tightened up.