– Article published today in the Illawarra Mercury, it was good to see the issue make the pages of the local paper today on page 4. Val Zanotto’s reported response was predictably disappointing & seems to be typical of his approach by generalising, twisting the facts & only telling part of the story.
Yes we do understand and readily accept that patrolling is number 1 and everything else takes 2nd place and we are committed to providing a service – 307 hours of Sunday & Public Holiday patrols to be exact. His claim about us being “disorganised” is astounding & his statement about doing “some training” is exactly the point that we have been trying to make – if there is time for “some training or the many other things we do” on a Saturday, it means that the Lifeguards have got the “core business” of protecting swimmers under control & we don’t need to be there.
15 out of 17 clubs have signed their Lifesaving Agreements because they received significant reductions in their Saturday patrol requirement & the threat of disciplinary action from SLSNSW was perceived as too great a risk by their respective committees. Tony Haven’s comments were predictable as well. SLSNSW continues to base their arguments on highly inaccurate data. In this case, claiming an increase in beach attendance of 10,000 people during last season is laughable – with the state of our beach, we don’t have enough room to fit that many people on our beach.
– Email received yesterday from Felicity Colbourne, SLSA Human Resources Manager. Not a positive response for us & stated, “SLSA’s position is to assess whether adequate consultation opportunities have been provided to your club and that consultation is consistent with other clubs across the state. SLSA does not review this matter in relation to operational delivery aspects as this is the role of SLSNSW.” (tears shed upon receipt of this email!!)
Based on SLSA’s response, I am still reasonably confident that we can achieve a positive outcome for our Club & Port Kembla. So the strategy for the next few days is:
– I have spoken to Anthony Turner, SLSI Director of Lifesaving about a possible compromise solution for Saturday patrols that he agreed with (bearing in mind he isn’t the decision-maker). My suggestion is to have 3 active members rostered for call-out for the Saturdays that SLSNSW want covered. Activation for call-out would be carried out by the Lifeguard at the beach, contacting our Club Captain, when certain conditions or a combination of conditions, reach an established trigger point. The Club Captain then mobilises the call-out team & they go to the beach to assist.
– I plan to try & organise a meeting with Graham Ford (SLSA President) with a small delegation from Corrimal & Port Kembla. Failing that, a telephone conversation would suffice.
– If we have no luck with the Graham Ford option, Dave Erskine & I have been contacted by WaveFM & will be participating in an interview on Tuesday.
– I have contacted WIN TV & I am waiting on a reply to see if we can get them to do a story.
– I am putting together an email to all SLSI Club Presidents on behalf of Corrimal & Port Kembla asking for their support that includes voicing their concerns at the next Branch Council meeting about the way that this issue has been handled by SLSI & SLSNSW and requesting that they do not provide or make available any resources from their respective clubs that will be used to cover for any patrols at either Corrimal or Port Kembla beaches should our membership be discontinued
– We will not make any lifesaving equipment available for use to any other party that will enable them to conduct patrols on Corrimal Beach (including sharing our First Aid equipment with WCC – I will notify WCC at the appropriate time)
– One of the reasons that I think that we’re in a pretty good position is that I’m not sure how much thought has been given to covering patrols at Corrimal & Port Kembla by SLSI, SLSNSW & WCC should our membership be cancelled but I’m guessing it will take a bit of doing. Providing coverage at Corrimal & Port Kembla beaches by WCC Lifeguards will cost in excess of $!00,000 for the season due to penalty rates for Sunday & Public Holidays, WCC would not have anticipated this additional cost & may not have a budget for it. WCC may then put pressure on SLSI & SLSNSW to back down?? If the other SLSI clubs support us & don’t provide coverage, there doesn’t appear to be many other options. If there are Sydney clubs willing to provide coverage, I will talk to their Club President & seek their support. Plus we’re not going to make any of our lifesaving equipment available.
We’ll see how that goes over the next week. If anyone has anything to add, please let me know.
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