As a security employer in British Columbia, you trust the mandatory Basic Security Training (BST) to provide your staff with the foundational skills they need. However, relying solely on the BST curriculum exposes your business to severe, unmanaged legal and financial risks.
The problem lies in a systemic constraint imposed on basic training programs that prevents instructors from introducing advanced, high-cost compliance issues that supervisors face every day in the modern security sector.
The Problem: A Legal and Training Vacuum
Basic Security Training is designed to teach entry-level workers how to obtain a license; it is not designed to protect your supervisory team from WorkSafeBC penalties or criminal liability (C-45).
The crucial mismatch is this:
- The Constraint of the Curriculum: Entry-level Training is often limited to standardized content and specifically prohibits instructors from “enhancing” the curriculum. This leaves significant training gaps in areas critical for B.C. compliance.
- The Supervisor’s Reality: Your supervisors operate under the WorkSafeBC Duty to Instruct and Control. This duty is measured against all foreseeable hazards, regardless of whether they were covered in the BST.
When an incident occurs—such as a security guard being assaulted while working alone—WorkSafeBC does not ask, “Did the guard pass the BST?” They ask, “Did the Supervisor take all reasonable precautions and provide instruction beyond the basic level?”
If your Training stops at the BST, your documentation is functionally obsolete for legal defence purposes.
The Consequences of Relying on Minimum Training
Ignoring this training vacuum has two catastrophic consequences for your firm:
- Unmanaged Financial Risk (The Premium Surcharge)
The security sector has a high base premium rate (e.g., 2.05% of payroll) due to high-cost claims, primarily driven by violence.
- Generic Training Fails to Prevent: Since BST does not specialize in Violence Risk Assessment or Advanced De-escalation, claims continue to rise.
- The 100% Penalty: WorkSafeBC’s Experience Rating program punishes high-claims firms with surcharges that can increase your premiums by up to 100%. Your supervisors are paying this penalty out of your bottom line because their Training did not teach them how to prevent the incidents causing the claims.
- The Failure of Due Diligence
Due diligence requires the verification of compliance. If your supervisor cannot prove they trained a guard in a specific high-risk protocol, the company is liable.
The BST does not train supervisors on essential, high-risk compliance procedures like:
- Working Alone Protocols (OHS Reg. s. 4.21): How to establish, document, and manage mandatory check-in systems to ensure assistance is “readily available.”
- Managing Legal Privilege: How to conduct incident investigations without giving up confidential reports to prosecutors.
- Accommodation and Human Rights: The legal thresholds for accommodating impairment, which often override standard security policies (e.g., mandatory shaving vs. religious belief).
The Solution: Targeted Supervisor Training
The path to controlling your premium rate and establishing a rock-solid legal defence begins by recognizing the BST’s limits.
The Foston Group’s Specialized BC Security Supervisor Course is designed to fill this exact gap. It focuses strictly on the advanced legal and operational procedures required by the WCA and OHS Regulation—providing your supervisors with the specialized documentation tools they need to ensure your company is legally protected and financially stable.
Call to Action: Don’t let your compliance stop at obsolete Training.