Apple will give its security guards the same rights as other employees

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Protestors blocked the door
Protestors blocking the door of Apple's flagship San Francisco retail store last year. Picture: Julia Carrie Wong

It’s not just technology and environmental credentials where Apple’s helping lead the way; the company is also doing its bit to secure the futures of those service employees working further down the payscale in Silicon Valley.

Like many tech companies, Apple has previously been the recipient of protests from its own security guards, who have been hired as contract workers rather than full-time employees. Last summer, 50 such individuals blocked the main doors of Apple’s flagship San Francisco Union Square retail store, protesting over their lack of job protection. “If [security officers] miss a day of work, they don’t know if they’ll have the job the next day,” one protestor noted.

To combat this, Apple has now announced that it will dramatically expand its in-house security team, which will see the workers receive the same benefits as other Apple employees. The move will mean that the majority of the day-to-day security staff who work at Apple will become full-time Apple employees, entitled to full health insurance, pension plans and lave for new parents.

“We will be hiring a large number of full-time people to handle our day-to-day security needs,” a spokeswoman for Apple said. “We hope that virtually all of these positions will be filled by employees from our current security vendor and we’re working closely with them on this process.”

Apple will still use contract security guards for occasions upon which it temporarily experiences heightened demand, such as special events.

Apple’s not the only company to make a similar change. Google announced back in October that it would hire around 200 of its security guards. However, given Apple’s work in favor of human rights, the move is definitely something which feels organic to the company’s identity, and which will hopefully be viewed as another example of Tim Cook making Apple a “force for good” in the world.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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