Employment Regulation Order (ERO)

The Irish Security Industry Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) are in addition to other national and legally applicable agreements such as the National Minimum Wage and other local agreements with staff. The Irish Security Industry Employment Regulation Orders are applicable to all workers in the specified Security sector.

All Security staff in Ireland since the 1^st of July 2024 are now covered by the new statutory instrument S.I. No. 319 of 2024.

This new Employment Regulation Order deals with the pay and working conditions of the Irish Security staff concerned within the Irish Security Industry. Its provisions will be included in their payroll and additionally as is the case with legislative changes, the Employment Regulation Order amends a Security employee’s current contract of employment accordingly to reflect the new elements of the Employment Regulation Order.

With regards to existing agreements and arrangements with the workers the Employment Regulation Orders states that the Employment Regulation Order does not affect in any way already existing agreements (whose terms are equal or better than the minimum of this order), in practice this means legally you cannot be worse off than you were by the introduction of a new employment law such as the Employment Regulation Order.

In some cases there are some existing agreements and arrangements with workers where there was a forward payment of various future anticipated Employment Regulation Order pay elements and in some cases this new 2024 Employment Regulation Order increase has now realigned some existing agreements and arrangements with workers to the differential’s prior to the agreements and arrangements being in place as the Employment Regulation Order has caught up on the agreements and arrangements made in the past.

Each and every Security worker to whom the order applies, have a base legal minimum rate of pay, and this is laid out in the relevant Employment Regulation Order of the day, so if a Security Officer working in the Irish Security Industry had an extra pay elements of say €2.50 per hour paid to them above the old minimum base rate of pay as stipulated by the previous Employment Regulation Orders (ERO), they should not now be in any way worse off or have previous wage element differentials eroded backwards, diluted, diminished, contracted, shrunk or reduced in any way whatsoever a new statutory Employment Regulation Order is signed in the law in Ireland and in the case of the person with the original €2.50 difference, this rate difference should not be eroded backwards, decreased or subsumed by the statutory orders increases on your legally established rates of pay as set in law by the Employment Regulation Order of the day.

The Irish Security Industry Employment Regulation Order of the day sets the minimum pay for all workers for whom the order applies and as of the 1^st of July 2024, that minimum rate is €14.50 per hour which has been risen by €1.60 per hour by this new 2024 Employment Regulation Order and all contracts of employments of the workers are now statutorily amended to reflect this new minimum rate of pay, accordingly all prior differentials with the previous statutory minimum rates are now ringfenced and protected as per section 20 of the new Employment Regulation Order which addresses Existing Agreements and it states that “This Employment Regulation Order does not affect in any way already existing agreements (whose terms are equal or better than the minimum of this order)”

You cannot be worse off by the Minister increasing the minimum rates of pay.

The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Emer Higgins stated “that the Order for the new ERO will provide for a new minimum rate of pay of €14.50 per hour for workers in the sector. She added that it is applicable to all workers in the specified sector and that employers are obliged to pay wage rates and provide conditions of employment not less favourable than those prescribed in the ERO from that date.

The Minister added that any breaches of an ERO may be referred to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for appropriate action.” She went on to add that “It is clearly an independent matter as to whether any party wishes to challenge such an Order in the Courts.”

The Private Security Authority (PSA) licensing standard PSA 28:2013 to which each and every licenced Security company in Ireland must follow and adhere too, requires all Irish Security contractors to fully comply with all legally enforceable legislation in relation to pay rates and conditions as well as other laws of the land in Ireland.

The Private Security Authority (PSA) who are the Irish Government appointed Regulator for the Irish Security Industry have stated that “The PSA licensing standard PSA28:2013, requires contractors to comply with legally enforceable legislation in relation to pay rates and conditions. The PSA, through its inspection regime, will monitor compliance with the new ERO and will take action against those found to be non-compliant.”

This means that all Irish Security contractors are to fully comply with all legally enforceable legislation in relation to pay rates and conditions as well as other laws of the land in Ireland in order to fully maintain their status to operate within the Irish state as a licenced Security company as per the PSA regulations.

Increase in pay and working conditions for Security staff in Ireland under the new 2024 ERO.

Brian Doyle, Securitas Ireland, Key Accounts Manager is part of the Irish Security Employer Committee that was formed by the Security Institute of Ireland that sits on the employer side of the Security Joint Labour Committee (JLC) which is tasked with negotiating with the Irish Trade Union representing the employees as regards the formulations of any new Employment Regulation Orders (ERO). Securitas Management are mandated by the Securitas Toolbox to have influence and lead the Security Industry where we operate for the betterment of everyone in the industry, a new Security ERO is one way for standards, terms, and conditions to increase for all staff in the Irish Security Industry.

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As a result of many months of talks, meetings, and negotiations a new ERO for the Security Industry was agreed and came into Irish law on the 1^st of July 2024. This new ERO has immediately uplifted all Security Staff’s minimum base rate of pay from €12.90 to €14.50, which is an increase of €1.60 per hour. This will help in the preservation of the wage and condition standards for the Irish Security Industry and one that is firmly welcomed by Securitas Ireland. 

“We welcome this decision and look forward to continuing to work with the Irish Security Industry Stakeholders to improve the pay and conditions of security officers in Ireland.” Ray Hoare, Country President and Managing Director, Securitas Ireland

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Statutory Minimum Remuneration and Conditions of Employment

This ERO establishes and confirms now the new minimum base payment rate of all security officers to whom the order applies with an increase of €1.60 per hour which is now applicable to all workers in the sector it applies too and that now €14.50 is the new legal minimum rates for all Security Officers and is now a term and condition of their contract of employments in Ireland as legally inserted by the ERO.

This means that for all Security Officers regardless of their composite rates and who were not covered by existing agreements and arrangements are now entitled to a €1.60 uplift as the increase of €1.60 has been added to their legal minimum base rate of pay by the ERO.

Some other key changes are as follows:

• Unsocial Hours
• A minimum payment of €12.60 per shift.
• To increase to €16.80 per shift – from 1st January 2025
• To increase to €20.00 per shift – from 1st January 2026
• Holidays
• 5 years or longer service = ONE additional day per annual leave year
• 10 years or longer service = TWO additional days per annual leave year
• Death in Service Benefit
• A non-contributory Death in Service benefit payment, equal to one year’s basic pay, is payable to a deceased employee’s estate upon completion of the qualifying period of 6 months’ continuous service (including transfer of undertakings) with their employer up to the age of 70 years.

Though the ERO states that “Workers who enter the industry will be offered a contract of employment with a minimum of 24 hours per week after 6 months’ service” Securitas believe in better when it comes to the terms and conditions of our staff.

Securitas Security Services Ireland have committed to offering the following:

• 36 hours per week contracts of employments to those staff who pass their probation
• We pay for all PSA Licences for our staff
• We will pay for the course cost to get a PSA Licence as per conditions
• We top up and add additional money to our staff pensions through our contributory staff pension scheme with a percentage of their salary
• And our most innovative initiative is that we will pay 50% of average wages earned for eligible staff for their maternity leave and furthermore they get to keep their social welfare, which means for some staff they could be on circa 85% of their normal salary and pay when on maternity leave by being a Securitas Ireland employee

These fantastic innovative measures are way outside the scope of the ERO. We endeavour where we can, offer our staff higher hourly rates, wages, salaries, terms, and conditions of employment that offer a higher attainable gross pay than is available from what is attainable under the ERO or generally across the Security Industry in Ireland.

These Securitas additional measures when all combined are unparalleled today within the Irish Security Industry and proves, that Securitas Ireland put our staff first and that helps the Securitas Ireland staff to Make the Difference every day.

Please see a copy of the latest Irish Security Industry Employment Regulation Order.