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Security guards face bleak Christmas after Tracer Security's nonpayment, noncompliance and lack of engagement

Security guards face bleak Christmas after Tracer Security's nonpayment, noncompliance and lack of engagement
A group of almost 200 retrenched Tracer Security Solutions employees gathered outside Pinelands Business Park on 9 December, with grievances concerning outstanding salaries, bonuses, maternity and sick leave days, as well as UIF and provident fund access. Their employer, Richard Rodney, failed to attend facilitation meetings, putting him at risk for charges of unfair dismissal. (Photo: Nicola Amon)
Nicola Amon
By Nicola Amon
19 Dec 2024
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Retrenched security personnel will spend their Christmas waiting after their employer Tracer Security Solutions no-show at facilitation meetings, ghosting messages and calls. In an attempt to reach their employer, almost 200 employees gathered outside Pinelands Business Park on 9 December 2024, handing over a memorandum listing their grievances. As of 18 December, the deadline for the employer to respond, it had not done so.

Former employees of Tracer Security Solutions, a private security company, held a protest on 9 December in an attempt to reach their employer, whom they said had been giving them the runaround. The company was given seven days to respond, but failed to do so.

The protest, held outside Pinelands Business Park on behalf of 187 retrenched employees, came after months of waiting for outstanding salaries, access to their provident funds, and the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

After being retrenched at the end of August, the protesters claimed that Tracer Security Solutions had violated several labour laws and that its owner, Richard Rodney, had failed to engage with them.

Among the claims were that the company had failed to pay both retrenched and current employees’ outstanding bonuses, had taken deductions off their salaries for provident funds and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) without them having anything to show for it, had failed to pay for maternity leave and sick leave, and had not paid the salaries of those currently in its service.

A memorandum listing their grievances was handed to the company’s manager, Hermanus Kupido, whom the owner sent to receive the document on his behalf. 

Employees caught by surprise


Samukelisiwe Ngobo, one of the retrenched workers and leader of the protest, said the employees were retrenched after the client, EXL Group, decided not to renew their contract with the company. 

The employees opened a case against Tracer Security Solutions and EXL Group at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on 31 August 2024 under section 189 of the Labour Relations Act.

The act said that employers must consult with employees who may be affected by a retrenchment and to issue a written notice to inform them of the retrenchment, both of which the company did not do, said Leo Bottomami, an official at the Independent Commercial Hospitality and Allied Workers Union (Ichawu), who is representing the workers.

Retrenched Tracer Security Solutions employees gather in protest outside Pinelands Business Park. (Photo: Nicola Amon)



Bottomami added that Tracer Security Solutions violated Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, which prohibited the dismissal of employees on the basis of a transfer from one service provider to another.

Tracer Security Solutions received a letter from EXL Group informing it of the termination of the contract on 15 July. “What (Rodney) ought to have done was send it on to Ichawu so that we could engage with EXL immediately about the transfer of employees,” said Bottomami. Tracer Security Solutions failed to do this, resulting in the 187 employees being left without alternative employment.

When Daily Maverick spoke to Rodney, he denied that he knew about the CCMA meetings and refused to comment further. According to Bottomami, Rodney had attended two facilitation meetings, and then failed to attend the remaining two required to complete the facilitation process. 

Asked why he had not attended the protest to receive the memorandum of grievances, Rodney said he had received death threats. Ngobo denied this, saying it was yet another attempt by Rodney to shirk responsibility. 

Deductions not paid to provident fund


“They never gave us UI-19 forms to go and claim our UIF. And we don’t know where our provident fund has been going, because if you go to the private security sector for provident funds, we are not registered, we don’t appear there,” said Ngobo.

While Tracer Security Solutions is registered with the Private Security Sector Provident Fund, this does not mean that all employees in the company are registered, which was the case with Tracer Security Solutions.

Private Security Sector Provident Fund management said that security guards were legally obliged to be registered with the provident fund due to the high risk of death and disability associated with the job.

In the most recent annual report of the Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator, it was determined that the Private Security Sector Provident Fund remained “the largest contributor to new complaints” with a total of 3,654 complaints lodged. 

The Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator added that the compulsory membership by security in the Private Security Sector Provident Fund was “questionable”, while employers continue to evade the funds’ requirements.

The report also found that the Private Security Sector Provident Fund’s management appeared unwilling to hold employers liable, while simultaneously failing to allocate funds to compliant members in a timeous manner.

The fund’s management confirmed that Tracer Security Solutions had failed to submit schedules and make payments to the provident fund “for months”. 

Schedules were required by the fund to determine how funds should be allocated among employees. Additionally, Private Security Sector Provident Fund could not grant withdrawal requests if no money has been paid towards their fund, management said. This meant that if an employee at Tracer Security Solutions became disabled or died, they would not receive remuneration.

According to an employee at Salt Employee Benefits, a company that oversees the Private Security Sector Provident Fund, security companies are their organisation’s “biggest headache” in terms of outstanding payments and invalid schedules. 

Read more: Pension Funds Adjudicator calls out Private Security Sector Provident Fund and administrator for negligence

Complaints about Tracer Security Solutions’ failure to pay outstanding bonuses, salaries and benefits such as sick and maternity leave, will be brought to the CCMA in March 2025 under Section 73 of Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

“They are supposed to pay us two months’ notice pay — September and October — which they did not pay,” Ngobo said. 

A broke Christmas


Rodney claimed that he had sent pay slips to the union, meanwhile Bottomami said these pay slips were fake, with Ngobo confirming that employees stationed at Clicks stores had been paid short for their December salaries.

“I have worked for one year, but when I count the money he owes me, it totals to R15,000. So if it’s a person who’s been working for 10 years — how much is that?” said Ngobo.

Mhlonyane Nontobeko, a current employee at Tracer Security Solutions, said she was “very disappointed” when she didn’t receive the money she was owed for maternity leave. 

“My family was looking to me to buy food,” she said. “I messaged Mr Richard and he didn’t answer.”

While Nontobeko still awaits her outstanding maternity leave money, the last salary she was paid was R500 short. 

Odwa Vaphi, also a current employee at Tracer Security Solutions, said he was owed almost R3,000 after not being paid his salary, and for sick leave. He said he also wanted to claim for his UIF and provident fund. 

“They said to me I’m not going to get (it), but they don’t give me the reason why,” said Vaphi.

“I made so many loans so I can pay to eat, and money for transport and for rent — that’s two months’ loan,” he said. “I need to support my kids, my family.” DM

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