hippy

I dont know if it will really matter is Den Hague gives the sia the time of day or not.. Our govt has retained significant opt out clauses regarding employment.. I would guess they would easily use them to keep the EU regs at arms length

dave73

The same government that is taking us into EU, what a joke! Maybe we need a march in London!

dannygee

I originally sent off my application 16 months ago it took them 5 for me to ring and see what was going on, they told me they hadn`t received it then 5 days later it was back on my floor with a note saying denied because of insufficiant funds, it took them that long to look at it that the cost had gone up in the mean time

phatboi

am currently waiting for the paper work to return from the sia that my lawyer sent as i have been a security officer for 2 years in scotland then the SIA make it compulsry to have a licence in nov 2007, i unfrotunatly had a little run in with the police in 2006, nothing serious, but the SIA said i couldnt have a licence, the only thing the SIA havent accounted for is that they have actually breached human rights, decleartion of human rights act article 24 paragraph 1 clearly states, "you have the right to work, you have the right to protected from unemployment", after some research and speaking to human rights lawyers, they have come up with the following, the SIA and government have on purposly made people like myself unemployed by bringing in a licence that grades people on a whole rather than a individual, the SIA are also only given permission to hand out these licences but can have the permission removed if they abuse this, also the SIA are registered as a buisness and a profit making one at that, question lie here, why do they need government funding, if they make in excess amounts of profit a year and afford to pay there 91 members of staff altogether almost 6 million pounds a year, thats almost £66,000 per member of staff not to mention there bonus, hence why i am persuing a legal suit against them as they are illigally making people unemployed and making a mint out of it,

"figures above are from the SIA 2007/2008 audit of profits and losses"

silent

Hi Guys n Gals, earlier in this thread (and others!!) I offered the opportunity for Ian McCartney (former chairman of the Labour Party) to chase some cases for us with the sia............... not a single forum member took up the offer!!! Sure, it might or might not have acheived any results but it would have 'raised a few names' and I am sure they would have been looked at as a priority to appease what is a powerful MP.
As for myself, I will be taking the european version when I can because I dont think the sia version will stand me very well on the international market in the future. I dont think it will be long till the bigger multinational companies insist on this as their minimum requirement. Sorry for the negativity but I say it as I see.
Silent (rant over!)

CP5276

Thanks for this post! Shame I only just saw it. The sia delayed my applicaton for well over a year. They then sent my supporting documents back to the wrong address, I then threatened to take legal action, the SIA apologised and process my application at an incredibe speed. After about 2 weeks of receiveng the badge, I got a letter from the SIA stating that I have to supply them with a criminal background check from time spent in India!! As I have never ever been to India, I phoned them up, spent a good hour and a half on the phone before one of their case workers took my call. He had a quick look into his computer and said.
"The computer says you have been in India, we need the criminal background check from the Indian Police, or we will revoke your license with immediate effect."
I then asked to speak to his line manager, the person I spoke to then refused, telling me he dealt with my application and no one else. I asked him if he is refusing to let me speak to his line manager and he said yes.

I then informed him that I have taken down his full name, and recorded the call as I intend to take legal action and make a formal complaint against him.

Guess what.. It took less than a minute for one of SIAs managers to call me back, apologise and then confirm the apology in writing.

Carl Dowd

Chill, it was a joke - Carl Dowd

Carl Dowd

Ian McCartney is an individual that whilst in his role as a Government Minister oversaw the compilation of over 3200 regulations for Business. One of them being the sia. I fail to see what sympathy or any positive action our industry is going to find in Government Ministers who represent a body or organisation that benifits financially from the collection of just another Stealth Tax. I am surprised that someone out there is not discussing the formation of some form of Operator's collective, maybe in the form of a Union or Union membership. I fully understand, and trust me I'm not being patronising, that many of this forum's members are PERHAPS new to commerciality having just left the forces but you have to understand that this debate over the SIA and the 2001 Private security Act has been with this industry since 1992. I and others involved then and yes we at the time had entered civvi street fresh from the Military were in no doubts that if the Industry failed to sort itself out then, when Labour came to power, IT WOULD! and we were right. Unfortunately, it has used a sledgehammer to crack a nut. But guys the warnings were written all over the wall during the Roadshows that the SIA undertook during early and mid 2000. As an industry we have been complacent and we have allowed arrogance to triumph here. Carl Dowd RTD Group

Taranis

We have had some excellent resluts by contacting our MP, cool and calmly explain the situation (you need their help), they write to higher authority ?? bring it up or why, then all of a sudden an sia License pops out.

We have done this three times now and it seems to work great, so get in touch with your MP's guys, keep it factual and to the point, if its hard work for them they will file it.

I have had a guy doing a renewal had it in 7 weeks the previous two were 3 months, one new app was six months did the MP thing the next week it arrived with a letter.

We are now pursueing loss of earnings, will let you know how we get on.

Regards Taranis