Lifeguards protest conditions

LIFEGUARDS protested vociferously outside of the White Hall offices of Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Holy Thursday for the reclassification of the Matrix Job Grading System which they said downgraded lifeguards to a lower category of daily paid worker. They also expressed their desire to have the entire lifeguard service restructured to allow them to obtain a career structure which would entail better salaries and working conditions within the service. This was told to Newsday by senior lifeguard John Whiskey at the demonstration site which was at the Queen’s Park Savannah, opposite White Hall.

He explained that the career structure for the service also meant that there had to be a whole change in how they were paid and how they received their benefits. “For example, there needs to be an Aquatic Coordinator responsible for the entire running of the lifeguard service. Then, we’d like to have an Assistant with him and Supervisor Two working within various national lifeguard zones in the country. And for every lifeguard site, we need to have beach patrol captains that would be responsible for the various lifeguard units at each individual site on the nation’s beaches.” He said the protesting lifeguards also want to see the establishment of a lifeguard training wing with qualified instructors that would be responsible for running a national training programme for TT lifeguards.

Regarding the issue of salaries for lifeguards, Whiskey said they were currently receiving $171 per day but this increase only resulted from the negotiations taken on their behalf via their union, the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW). “We have decided to work on the nation’s beaches for this Easter weekend and continuing afterwards based on the commitment given to us by the Ministry of Tourism and the PM’s Special Advisor, Herbert Atwell. That commitment he made to us is to have our matter heard in an expeditious manner before Cabinet.”