In a major turn of events, the management of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has agreed to grant permanent employees’ status to its security guards. These security guards will now be on permanent rolls of Apple and will now receive all the benefits availed by Apple workers including health insurance, retirement benefits and leave for new parents. Till now, it was through a contractor that the company used to hire its security guards.
The spokesperson of the company announced that a large number of full-time employees would be hired for its security needs. For these positions, they would first consider the employees provided by the current security vendor. The process of inviting applications for these in-house positions will begin soon. However, the company will still hire contractual security guards for its temporary needs as and when required.
The news comes amidst a lot of controversies regarding rampant use of contractual workers by the companies in the Silicon Valley. Apple and other tech companies were facing a lot of pressure from the local unions to provide the perks enjoyed by other permanent workers to its service workers (cooking, cleaning and managing security) too. The latter stayed on the campus itself but availed little benefits.
Last year, in the month of October, when Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) decided to hire 200 permanent security guards, the move was hugely appreciated by the local union United Service Workers West. The latter is a regional arm of the Service Employees International Union. The local union also organized a rally in Apple’s campus in December and raised a demand to do away, with the security contractor and grant permanent status to its security guards. They had also voiced a concern against Apple’s contractor, Security Industry Specialists, regarding the ill-treatment of its workers.
Apple’s current move has encouraged even other security workers to form associations and raise demand for better wages and benefits.
