We thank Mr Pavithran Vidyadharan for his letter (Reduce security officers' shift from 12 to 8 hours, Oct 16).

The Union of Security Employees (USE), Security Association Singapore (SAS) and Association of Certified Security Agencies (ACSA) are part of the Security Tripartite Cluster (STC) committee.

The STC is the body that introduced the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for security officers. It is also tasked with looking at reducing overtime hours.

In the review of the PWM recommendations in 2017, USE, SAS and ACSA lobbied for the STC to recommend the removal of the overtime exemptions that security agencies had broadly applied for prior to this year.

This resulted in agencies no longer being able to apply for overtime exemptions except under exceptional circumstances from Jan 1 of this year.

We are of the view that more can be done to improve the wages, welfare and work prospects of our security officers. This includes reducing the long working hours.

In this vein, we have negotiated strenuously at the STC for further changes to the PWM in the next recommendations. These will be announced by the end of this year.

Ardi Amir

President

Union of Security Employees

Raj Joshua Thomas

President

Security Association Singapore

John Vijayan Vasavan

President

Association of Certified Security Agencies