New guidelines to protect cash-in-transit workers
Cash-in-transit workers will be better protected from ‘tiger’ kidnappings and violent attacks due to new safety guidelines, it was claimed today.
The lack of adequate security systems in the industry were exposed last year when criminal gangs carried out two multi-million euro heists .
The Health and Safety Authority (HAS) said its new guidelines would make work safer for employees of the cash-in-transit industry.
“The industry itself is now fit for purpose, it’s doing all it can to reduce the opportunity for criminals to be involved,” said chief executive Tom Beegan.
“My message today is: you’re wasting your time going after this cash because the mechanisms are such that the cash will be destroyed if you try and take it.”
Cash-in-transit companies are now widely using dye-based note destruction systems to protect staff who have to deliver cash to ATMs in exposed locations.
The new guidelines require companies to take measures to protect their workers against by physical violence by providing bullet and stab proof vests, while syringe attacks should be guarded against by vaccinating workers for Hepatitis B.
They also recommend regular variation of crewing, cash delivery times and routes, as well as using codenames to keep the identities of locations confidential.
There is an increased emphasis on banks and local authorities providing accessible parking spaces for cash-in-transit vans so that the distance that workers have to walk with a cash delivery is reduced as much as possible.
Cash-in-transit companies must ensure that their workers have adequate training, particularly the number of non-English speaking people now employed in the sector.
Group 4 Securicor, which is one of the largest cash-in-transit companies, said more modern technologies such as note destruction systems could deny criminals access to the cash being delivered.
“It becomes pointless for the criminal to put staff under pressure to hand out the valuables they are transporting,” said human resources manager John Fitzgerald.
He said the security industry had agreed procedures with the Gardaí to protect their workers in the event of a so-called tiger kidnapping, where family members are held hostage in order to ensure that cash-in-transit workers co-operate.
“The primary focus is to protect the staff member and then to protect the valuables,” said Mr Fitzgerald.
Last year, a family was held hostage at their home in north Dublin as part of a two million euro cash heist and a cash-in-transit crew was robbed of €2.5m when stopped get coffee at a service station in Killester, Dublin.
Minister of State for Trade Michael Ahern said the new guidelines were a shining example of what could be achieved by co-operating between employers and employees.
“Proper safety and health procedures in the cash-in-transit industry will bring benefits not just to the industry but also to the general public in terms of safety and security,” he said.
