AFTER more than two years of industrial confrontation, the National Workers Union (NWU) and Secure St. Lucia Ltd are hoping to start the New Year on better terms and are working towards concluding negotiations over a collective agreement and work conditions before the year ends.
The parties to date have agreed to all fringe benefits aimed at creating a better working environment. To ensure that things work out the company made a wage increase offer which the NWU says it will discuss with shop stewards and security guards at an internal meeting scheduled for next week.
According to the NWU its objective in these negotiations is to create, as much as is possible, a level of standardization in the security services sector.
The past two or three years have been rocky for both parties as they jockeyed over several matters affecting security guards, even as they admitted publicly to respecting each other professionally.