Chura Thapa, Hong Kong
20 January 2009 : Gurkha security guards working for G4S Company have decided to continue their agitation after the company management failed to agree on their demands. The chairman of the newly formed Gurkha Security Guards Mr. Bishnu Prasad Gurung said that they were forced to resort to agitation due to the company’s repressive policies. “We were forced to launch protest programmes because the management never listened to our grievances.” Says Mr. Gurung.
According to Mr. Gurung, G4S management, after its inception in 1999, has always decreased the salary of the workers instead of increasing. The company is also accused of forcing the workers to pay huge fines for small errors unreasonably.
The agitating guards have forwarded nine point demands to the management. And the G4S management has agreed to some of them. However, our correspondent on the protest site says that the workers are in no mood to stop their protests unless management accepts all of their demands.
The protest actions began from yesterday, 19 January 2009. The organizers say that they have been receiving support from various quarters in Hong Kong for their actions. There were almost 250 workers joining the protest programmes yesterday. However, the number of protesters is increasing. Mr. Gurung said that there were more than 400 workers joining the protest programmes today, and it’s going to be bigger in the coming days.
According to sources, G4S employs some 600 Gurkha security guards in Hong Kong. It then supplies the guards to various residential buildings and banks since Gurkhas are the trusted security guards and body guards in Hong Kong. The workers accuse G4S of charging the clients excessively but paying little to the frontline staffs.
