Lifeguards want urgent meeting with minister

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While beachgoers celebrate the extended opening hours of the nation’s beaches from Monday, the Lifeguards Association has called for an urgent meeting with National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to discuss how this will affect their terms of employment.

One month after reopening beaches on December 18, 2021, from 5 am to noon daily, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Saturday extended this by a further two hours, allowing persons until 2 pm each day to enjoy the sun, sea and sand.

Making the announcement during a media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, he gave the green light for the reopening of rivers which he said would operate with the same restrictions.

These include gatherings not exceeding ten people, no alcohol consumption, no fires, no music or parties, and wearing of face masks when not in the water.

But while beach-goers celebrate the extended hours, lifeguards assigned to the nine beaches around Trinidad said the extended hours have once again sought to change the terms of their working hours.

President of the Lifeguard Branch, National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW), Augustus Sylvester said they met with ministry officials last month to discuss the issue, following which they agreed to work from 8 am to noon each day.

The lifeguards normal working hours run from 10 am to 6 pm daily as set out in the Collective Agreement.

Sylvester explained, “We tried to facilitate the Government in the sense of the opening from 5 am to noon every day.”

However, he said the request for the Ministry of National Security (MNS) to document the changes in their working hours following that meeting, was yet to materialise.

Yesterday’s extension Sylvester said, would further impact their working conditions and as such, “We are asking for a meeting with the ministry and we will not be negotiating with them until they put something in writing.”

This effectively means that beach-goers to Maracas, Las Cuevas, Tyrico, Manzanilla, Quinam, Mayaro, Vessigny, Los Iros, Salybia, and Toco will be without any lifeguard support from noon to 2 pm daily.

Sylvester said, “A lifeguard’s job is observation and then going into action, so to operate from 5.30 am daily is unethical.”

He said the current arrangement will remain in effect until the ministry meets with them.

Indicating they had complied with the previous request to adjust their working hours but had not received the necessary documentation to reflect this, he said they would not be willing to extend themselves until negotiations were concluded this time around.

Claiming the current workforce was an ageing one, Sylvester said although people had been trained during the past ten years, no new hires were done which meant they were short-staffed and over-worked.

Efforts to reach officials at the Tobago House of Assembly for a comment proved futile.