The Portuguese Federation of Lifeguards (FEPONS) makes a “positive” balance of the first month of the bathing season, which has had enough watchmen on the beaches, despite the lack of “incentives” and “new equipment”.
The bathing season started on different dates in the country, with the first openings of beaches taking place in the beginning of June.
“So far we have no record of lack of lifeguards,” said FEPONS president Alexandre Tadeia to the Lusa agency, who had been warning since April of the possibility of a shortage of professionals to ensure surveillance in the summer.
According to the official, there could be a shortage of 1.500 to 2.000 lifeguards, but this scenario did not occur due to the closure of swimming pools in the interior of the country, following the covid-19 pandemic.
“The lack of opening of the swimming pools in the interior meant that many lifeguards who were unemployed went to work for the maritime beaches”, he pointed out.
In fact, he explained, “people who worked in these pools with other professions, such as swimming teachers, but who also had the lifeguard course”, also went to the beaches.
In addition, Alexandre Tadeia considered that the financial crisis caused by covid-19 may have led to more people looking for this job, changing the trend that "only 50% of lifeguards return to work in the following bathing season", according to one study of the federation.
On the other hand, the remuneration values of professionals “are very similar to last year”, although associations and concessionaires have “more costs” with personal protection equipment, he reported.
“For each treatment, be it a simple wound, it is necessary to do the entire covid assessment and, on the other hand, much of the personal protective equipment cannot be reused, which leads to an increase in cost accounting,” he explained.
As the safety of users has been guaranteed, the president considered that the first month of the bathing season "is being positive", but argued that the activity still "needs fiscal and social incentives" and the "approval of new water rescue equipment ”.
Between April and May, the federation called for the application of social and fiscal incentives for lifeguards, such as tax exemption (IRS and IVA), user fees or tuition fees, a special hiring regime and a change in safety devices, with the reduction in the number of guards, but nothing was applied by the Government.
“We managed to meet with the National Defense commission and managed to make a series of interventions, but so far no incentives have been produced”, he lamented.
According to the representative, the adaptation of professionals to the new protocol for assistance to bathers has also gone well, in which the biggest changes to avoid contagion "are felt more in first aid than in the actual rescue of water".
"On land, whether to provide basic life support or to provide first aid, there are very big changes, but at this moment all lifeguards have information on what to follow and there is no record of any problem in adapting" , informed.
In this regard, he added that there had already been a record of professionals infected with covid-19, but that these were “very occasional cases” that originated in their “private life” and not in the activity of assisting bathers.
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