Palma lifeguards have called an indefinite strike from Sunday, May 21.
They are demanding the improvements to working conditions and wages that were agreed last year but which have still not been applied.
According to the secretary of the Lifeguards Union, Julián Delgado, the entire staff, some 45 in the low season and 60 in the high season, will leave the beaches of the municipality without surveillance until the concessionaire, Emergencies Setmil S. L., fulfils the commitment made in the summer of 2022.
According to the lifeguards’ representative, “all the agreements signed a year ago have not been fulfilled and no measures have been implemented to improve the service”.
That is why they have called the strike and they will not comply with the minimum services.
Delgado warned only a few weeks ago that they were going to start the season “without adequate infrastructures and resources”.
At that time, he criticised the fact that some of the 13 watch towers on the Palma coastline “were not in good condition” and that in a couple of them “the stairs were missing”.
He also questioned, among other things, the state in which the infirmaries had been found and the lack of adequate equipment.
The lifeguards plan to keep up the protests until they get the improvements. The only option for calling off the strike is, according to the union member, a meeting scheduled at the TAMIB in the next few days, at which they will demand improvements “immediately” under the threat of leaving the municipality’s six beaches (Playa de Palma, Cala Estancia, Ciutat Jardí, Portixol, Can Pere Antoni and Cala Major) without a lifeguard service.