the goan I network
MAPUSA
Espousing a direct relation between government and lifeguards, Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo on Saturday said lifeguards should be recruited on contract and government should pay their salaries instead of paying it to the “middleman”.
“The government can take all the lifeguards under the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) and GTDC should directly pay them. Do not employ them directly under the government. It should be purely on contract basis but salary paid by the government,” Lobo said.
“This was my demand with the ex-CM and I will talk to the present CM too on the issue,” he added.
The lifeguards employed by the Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd, a beach management company have stayed away from work for the last one week for various reasons such as from non-payment of salaries to lack of increment and bonus facilities.
The Waste Management Minister said that he was always of the mind that lifeguards should be brought under the GTDC and their salaries by paid by the government instead of third party. “Government pays Drishti and the agency in turn gives salary to lifeguards. Why this middleman...There is lot of exploitation of labour in this,” he said.
Incidentally, the lifeguard towers dotting the beaches are built by the government. All the equipment like the jet skis, spinal boards etc used by the lifeguards are purchased by the government.
“Drishti is a management agency. Government is paying money to Drishti to adopt and manage safety measures on the beaches. They recruit the labour and give to the government,” Lobo said.
He further said government should not get involved in the business of training the lifeguards but instead take help of any agency to train the lifeguards.
The minister said that people who swim were always fit and age should not be a bar to terminate the jobs of lifeguards. “When you are in water you remain fit…whatever your age you remain fit. When we take them on contract we need to keep them till 60 years. Whoever does not want to continue can opt out,” he said.
The protesting lifeguards had recently written to the CM requesting to scrap the contract with Drishti and to absorb them under an association formed by government.
