Lifeguards on Goa’s beaches strike work, demand higher salary

PTI

Goa, 07 December 2010:  Eighty-five lifeguards managing the rescue and security operations on Goa’s beaches went on strike today demanding hike in salary.
    
The guards are attached to Drishti Beach Management Services which has a contract to offer the service.
    
A company spokesman said the lifeguards were ’mis-guided’ by some elements while the protesting lifeguards claimed they were promised higher salary but it was not given.
    
Though the guards, who oversee a 30-km stretch from Baga to Miramar (near Panaji), struck work, the company made alternative arrangements to ensure the safety of the tourists visiting the beaches.

"The company has promised that it will hike our salaries but has failed to do so. We are left with no option other than to protesting by striking the work," Prakash Gaonkar, a lifeguard posted at Miramar beach told PTI.
     
He said a lifeguard was also harassed by a senior company official on Sunday night at Miramar beach.
     
The company, however, has flatly denied it.
     
"Striking lifeguards demanded suspension of a senior, which was not acceptable to the management," the spokesman said adding there was a scuffle among lifeguards at a get-together after work hours at midnight on Sunday which triggered the crisis.
     
The spokesman said that besides demanding suspension of the senior officer, lifeguards also demanded hike in salary and reduction in work hours.
     
"The Management has requested the lifeguards to immediately resume work which they have agreed to," he claimed.