Bouncy, Bouncy: Regulation of bouncers

The bouncers of the Balearics are going to have to go back to school. The regional government is proposing a law that will require bouncers to undergo an official course and to pass a test that will gauge both physical and psychological abilities to do the job.

The requirements for being accredited are wide-ranging, from understanding rights under the Constitution to being able to resolve conflicts without resorting to violent methods and to having basic abilities in both Catalan and Spanish.

The background to all this is three-fold: the death of a club goer in Madrid at the hands of bouncers; the legal vacuum surrounding the club security business; the bad image that bouncers have. The colloquial term for a bouncer is "gorila"; the nicer one is "portero", the same word for goalkeeper.

Bouncers have tried to improve their image. In the UK they have been re-invented as "door hosts" or "door supervisors", but the image endures, one of intimidating muscle-bound gym monkeys - gorillas. The law in the Balearics will not be too dissimilar to requirements in the UK for obtaining a "door supervisor licence", which demands 30 hours of training; in fact, it seems to be more stringent.

At the same time as the Balearics are going down the same sort of track as the UK, there are concerns that the UK is about to take a backwards step. The Security Industry Authority, which licenses bouncers, is also a Quango and may well be disbanded. The fear is that this will mean a return to the bad old days and the re-emergence of organised crime running the club security business.

A question arises as to why there hasn't been effective control of bouncers. A central law transferred responsibility for its being enacted in the Balearics several years ago. But it was never acted upon. A conference on civil responsibility, held in Ibiza in June this year, looked specifically at the failure to introduce regulation and recorded various reports of attacks by bouncers, including one that was racially aggravated (the Balearics law includes specific mention of racism).

One aspect of the new law, and which may explain why it has not been introduced before, is that it is likely to end up costing not only individual bouncers but also club owners. Licence charges aren't that high in the UK, but this doesn't mean that they might not be in the Balearics. But even a low charge adds some further financial burden as well as further regulation to an industry that awaits the introduction of the smoking ban with some trepidation; of all the "hostelry" sectors, clubs and night bars are expected to be the hardest hit by the ban. So we can probably expect some condemnation of the law.

What doesn't seem to be being mentioned, though, is anything about tourists. As is often the case, it can be salutary to see what is being said on internet forums. In the case of bouncers, they are "aggressive", turn people away without explanation and, in one instance, did nothing to intervene when someone was being beaten up "for 15 minutes" in a particular club. Then there is the question of age. Unless you look really young, you shouldn't have problems getting past the bouncers was one piece of advice. A further aspect of the new law will be to deal with underage drinking, something which has been poorly tackled across the board in Mallorca and Spain, and so check ID. A problem, especially for British kids, is whether they have any.

As ever though, there will be an issue as to how rigorously new regulations will be applied and who will be doing the applying, and in the case of those currently working in the "industry", they will have until 2014 to pass their tests. To which one might ask: why so long? Bouncers will be going back to school, but the lessons won't be starting for some time yet.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.