Call for Input: SIA's Consultation on New Business Approval Scheme and Labour Providers

SIA seeks public and private parties to participate in a consultation via an online survey or written submissions by 04 April 2024. Participation is essential for those interested in security standards and public protection.

The complete consultation draft can be read here.

EarnFlex, as a technology-based labour provider, finds it exciting that SIA is listening and planning to fix issues with the current ACS Scheme and Labour providers. If the draft is implemented, some of the critical changes suggested for ACS-approved businesses can avoid many loopholes in the scheme that security providers use to exploit the system by hiding behind the ACS scheme. 

Some of the exciting points highlighted in the draft are:

• To communicate the business capacity to SIA and their clients, i.e., the number of SIA-approved workers on their books, not the 100's of subcontractors they use. (Consultation draft Pages 34)
• Inform about a short list of subcontractors and labour providers they work with with their internal audit reports. (Consultation draft Pages 36)
• Ensuring customers are fully aware (for example, in contracts and writing) that a sub-contractor will deliver the service or part of it, not the parent company who got the contract. (Consultation draft Pages 37)
• Limits and restrictions on further sub-contracting – for example, should contracts only be sub-contracted a specific number of times down (say 2 or 3) or without notifying us and limiting the percentage of work in the company's portfolio that can be sub-contracted in this way. (Consultation draft Pages 38)

The easiest way to get involved is to complete the SIA online survey. SIA has included the consultation questions in this document. The survey will take around 20 minutes, depending on how much detail you provide in additional boxes. Once you start the online survey, you can save and return to it anytime.