Jim Walker looks at the email from G4S telling him his application has been delayed

18-year-old from Seven Kings ‘losing hope’ of getting a G4S Olympics security job

Alistair Kleebauer, Senior reporter Wednesday, July 18, 2012
4:00 PM

An 18-year-old from Seven Kings has waited five months to get an Olympics job with security company G4S and has now given up hope.

The company was criticised this week after admitting it won’t be able to provide the full workforce numbers under the terms of its contract.

That is despite thousands of workers like Jim Walker, of Blythswood Road, Seven Kings, having successfully gone through the application and interview process.

Jim, the son of Cllr Andy Walker, a Labour councillor for Chadwell ward, applied for a basic security role at the Games, which opens next week, in February.

He was invited for an interview in Stratford the same month and in April was given notice that he was still being considered for work.

On Thursday, he received an email to say his details were still undergoing a “further background check” which could take “a number of weeks”.

He said: “I think the Olympics will be over. I’m waiting for them to contact me and I doubt that they will.

“They do have work lined up, the problem is they weren’t very good at recruiting people.”

A G4S spokesman said he could not comment on individual cases but there had been “delays in progressing applicants through the final stages”.

He said 4,000 people were working already and more than 9,000 are going through the final stages.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stepped in to provide 3,500 troops to make up the shortfall in security staff.

A MoD spokesman today said this will not affect the numbers of military staff at the temporary Snoozebox hotel in Hainault Forest Country Park, Romford Road.

It is set to house 3,000 MoD personnel and 1,000 G4S staff during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.