We refer to Ms Felicia Lin's letter regarding her father's deployment at a school as a security officer (Can conditions for security guards be improved? Sept 30).

Our union is aware of situations such as the one Ms Lin's father faced. We have handled 1,911 cases at our mediation services centre since 2018, and similar cases have been reported before.

In the private security industry, the service buyer plays a disproportionately powerful role in determining the officers' work conditions, as Ms Lin's father's case demonstrates. Our union has been engaging service buyers on responsible outsourcing and has coordinated programmes to redesign deployment and work areas. Still, there will always be service buyers who can do better, like the manager Ms Lin cited who took away the fan at the guard post.

We hope Ms Lin can get in touch with us through our app or by e-mailing use@ntuc.org.sg

We will do our best to engage the school concerned to review how its outsourced officers are treated. We would also like to help Ms Lin's father to be employed at other sites that have empathetic service buyers who look out for our officers.

Raymond Chin

General Secretary

Union of Security Employees