SOS Rescuers demands the Generalitat of Catalunya that a decree that regulates the beach lifeguard teams of all Catalonia. The trade union platform has gathered this Tuesday at the gates of the Palau de la Generalitat, in the Saint James square, where they have denounced that currently each city council applies different criteria when regulating the lifeguard service on its beaches. The spokesperson for the platform, nacho ibanezhas defended that the decree is “basic” for unify criteria and avoid it being the decision of each council in which month of the year they begin to offer lifeguard service, or how many professionals and how many watchtowers they install per square meter of beach.
In the concentration this Tuesday, lifeguards from Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona have warned that, in the current context, summers are getting longer and hotter and that the influx of people on the beaches does not stop growingwhich in recent years has caused a increase in the number of deaths by drowning.
In this sense, the group considers that it is urgent to improve the rescue and first aid services, which involves providing the teams with better infrastructure, as well as regulating the number of professionals that must be per square meter of beach . “Some municipalities install a watchtower and then you have 500 meters to the next one, and in between 10,000 people: this does not guarantee vigilance or a response,” Ibañez denounced.
Besides, one of the main demands of the lifeguards is that similar criteria be established in terms of the temporary equipment. According to Ibañez, in Catalonia there are municipalities such as Sitges or Lloret de Mar that begin to offer lifeguard services in April, while others do not. to Sant Joan. Something that they consider to be a problem given the actual duration of the summers in Catalonia and the number of people who have frequented the beaches since before Sant Joan. “Here is the big difference, Sitges and Lloret de Mar They have temporalities in accordance with what we consider normal, and others that as of June 20 do not offer lifeguard teams, we understand that if there were a decree throughout Catalonia this would not happen,” Ibañez insisted.
“We believe that professionalizing the sector is an urgent need, for the safety of users, for our rights as workers,” said the lifeguard, who works on beaches in the Baix Llobregat.
An “occupational hazard”
Among others, SOS Socorristas has also questioned the conditions in which they work. According to Ibañez, many of them work days of more than nine hours, and they do it in full sun and sitting in chairs that “pose an occupational hazard.”
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Given this, Ibañez claims that there are municipalities that are already installing “more advanced” watchtowers, covered by a roof and with tinted windows. “We believe that it can be achieved and the idea of coming to the Generalitat is to propose it in order to achieve it and that it be a general rule of each council and, thus, do not depend on the good or bad will of each one of them“, it is finished.
As they affirmed, the decree that they demand “is nothing new”, but a proposal that has already gone ahead and has been applied in other autonomous communities such as the Canary Islands or the Balearic Islands.