Camille Clarke

Life­guards at Mara­cas Bay stayed away from the beach yes­ter­day, protest­ing bad work­ing con­di­tions. Branch pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Union of Gov­ern­ment and Fed­er­at­ed Work­ers' Union, Au­gus­tus Sylvester, said so in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day. Sylvester said the work­ing con­di­tions at the life­guard fa­cil­i­ty at the beach were not suit­able.

"The life­guards are not work­ing based on these con­di­tions," he said. "They went to work on Wednes­day and they were greet­ed by con­struc­tion. The work­ers were not in­formed of any con­struc­tion work and ren­o­va­tion on the site." Sylvester said parts of the life­guard quar­ters had been falling apart. "We should have been in­formed and some kind of tem­po­rary arrange­ments made," he said.

"We are there to pro­tect the pub­lic but they are throw­ing peo­ple in the bam­boo." Cit­ing the re­cent launch of Tourism Month, Sylvester said the au­thor­i­ties were not cater­ing for peo­ple work­ing for the pub­lic. "The work­ers were not giv­en a so­lu­tion and on Thurs­day, the life­guards were told to go to the bath­room fa­cil­i­ties to man the beach...They can­not op­er­ate un­der those con­di­tions in a small cramped place," he said.

Sylvester said the work­ers obeyed, but no oth­er al­ter­na­tives were put in place. He said trainees were de­ployed to su­per­vise the beach yes­ter­day and they (trainees) need­ed su­per­vi­sion. "The pa­trol cap­tain is on the beach with them, but it is a pub­lic hol­i­day...Five life­guards are need­ed on a reg­u­lar day to su­per­vise the beach," he said.