With onset of summer tourist season in Goa, lifeguards have threatened to go on strike if the state government fails to make “positive intervention” on their demands, including regularisation.
Lifeguards, employed with government-contracted agency - Drishti Lifesaving Services - had earlier gone on strike from December 21, 2015, to January 13, demanding regularisation of their services and hike in salary.
They withdrew the protests after the government assured to look into their demands.
All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the union representing lifeguards, has already moved the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court. The court, on April 7, granted two weeks time to the government to workout settlement between the lifeguards and their employer.
The court has posted the next hearing on April 25 wherein the state government will file its reply.
“We find that the government has been neglecting the issue of lifeguards. The court during the trial has asked the state government to hold meeting with the Lifeguards’ union and come back with the solution.
But we were denied the appointments by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar,” said AITUC secretary Suhas Naik who is representing the lifeguards in the court.
“We are now waiting for the written reply to be filed before the court. If there is no positive intervention, then we will have to strike the work,” he said.
Conceding that leaving beaches unmanned can be fatal for tourists, Naik said the government has left the lifeguards with “no other option“.
When contacted, Parulekar refused to comment on the issue stating that “the matter is subjudice“.
Lifeguards are also demanding that the government should implement the agreement signed with the lifeguards on November 21, 2014.
