Does it really cost 28k per olympic security guard?

Dr House

Dr House

Dr House

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So G4S have been contracted to provide 10 000 security guard at a cost of 284 Million pounds.

So thats over 28k per guard for just over 2 weeks? Am I missing something because that really does not sound right?

Also there are 500 000 unsold football tickets, can these tickets not be given to the family of the police and military that are being calling in to guard the games?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/24/london-2012-olympics-g4s-military
 
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Dr House said:
Also there are 500 000 unsold football tickets, can these tickets not be given to the family of the police and military that are being calling in to guard the games?
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Hey, yeah sure, let us all chip in and buy them for them, why you asking us? Its the government what did you expect?
 
Hyburnate said:
Hey, yeah sure, let us all chip in and buy them for them, why you asking us? Its the government what did you expect?
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Well they are just taking them off sale and closing off the area. This way you keep the soldiers happy and more people to that games so more money will be spent with local businesses.


StriderX - valid points
 
Dr House said:
Well they are just taking them off sale and closing off the area. This way you keep the soldiers happy and more people to that games so more money will be spent with local businesses.


StriderX - valid points
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I completely agree with you. Or even auction them off to charity.
 
It would be nice if some of that 28,000 were paid to the soldiers, but I'll be very surprised if most soldiers aren't financially worse off for being stuck there.
 
I_M_Weasel said:
It would be nice if some of that 28,000 were paid to the soldiers, but I'll be very surprised if most soldiers aren't financially worse off for being stuck there.
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Don't they get a salary?

Or do you get paid x5 more in Iraq, x10 more doing recon in North Korea and half pay for Buckingham palace? :confused:
 
Er - I think you forgot the cost of all those managers and other overheads (extra laundry, office work etc), not to mention the big profit they thought that they were going to make (and might yet)?
 
Raymond Lin said:
Don't they get a salary?
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Yes they do, but people like police officers doing extra hours will get overtime and somewhere decent to live, the soldiers will be stuck in a warehouse.

I think that's acceptable when the countries having some kind of unforeseen disaster, like foot and mouth, or the fire service suddenly striking.

And where will this 28K go otherwise? Into G4S's pocket? Even if they use it to pay the soldiers wage they'll be up about 26K per soldier hired.
 
StriderX said:
Kevlar, general security equipment, training, defensive weapons, metal detectors.

Many a reason, nothing solid, but it's logical.
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I can almost guarantee they won't be issuing body armour, and security staff aren't allowed weapons of any sort unless they're military or classed as constables.
Training will have cost them very little as it'll be the basics and will have either of been provided in house or they'll have a contract with a training provider.
It's just a nice inflated price because it's a government contract, if it was a contract for a private company it could probably have been done better for half the cost.
 
The owner of the security company I work for was head hunted to work as an operations manager by G4S for the games, they've got a couple and each one owns their own firms which they've had to take 9 months away from.
They're being paid very very well for it.
 
*shock horror at business things costing a lot*

It's not just a case of "I could get someone and train them for less than 28k". You're just dividing the total contract price between the number of security guards which isn't right, and I'm sure the original tender had a breakdown of how much each guard was going to be towards that (which probably isn't even half). You're forgetting everything else: management, HR, recruitment (both admin costs and advertising costs), payroll, marketing, accounts, etc etc etc. The list goes on. And they'll only need everything for the 3 week period and run-up so everything will be outsourced or brought in and hence inflated.

Oh and the existing staff will want bonuses for working their buttocks off/working overtime/out of contract too.
 
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tom_e said:
I can almost guarantee they won't be issuing body armour, and security staff aren't allowed weapons of any sort unless they're military or classed as constables.
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Military isn't being authorised to use force here, so no weapons. Not the ones who have been drafted in to help with the G4S screw up at least.
 
Even with administration costs I don't see how it costs £28k per guard either. Other businesses probably manage to hire guards for the whole year for that much (admin costs included).

I work in the recruitment advertisement industry and costs tend to go up with different job roles and not so much where you have one job with multiple vacancies. You wouldn't for example post one advert per available position, you would post one advert saying x amount of positions available at x location(s).

HR costs would go up overall though but because they are able to train people in centres en-mass they would actually on average be lower per guard than if you were recruiting just a few due to economies of scale.
 
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I hope there were clauses in the contract so the government gets half its investment back, for what its worth.

Im assuming that G4S thought they would be able to get away with short term contracts scooping up unskilled people, putting dayglow jackets on them and giving 2 weeks very basic training
 
IIRC most of those 10 000 recruits only get paid £8.50 p/h, so it is clear that they are exploiting them while management etc get all the money.
 
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Again, *shock horror at big businesses making big profits*.

Did you know some people in Tesco only get paid minimum wage yet the directors are on millions?!?
 
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