Hong Kong Lifeguard union strike leads to closure of beaches and swimming pools

A strike by the Hong Kong and Kowloon Life Guards’ Union on Sunday (17th July) led to the closure of four beaches and 12 swimming pools across the Special Administrative Region.

Staging a demonstration outside the Hong Kong Government’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) headquarters on Sunday, the Union protested their demands to increase current staff number to 2,400, raise the retirement age to 65 and create an independent pay grade for lifeguards instead of keeping them on the current ‘artisan’ pay grade.

The Union has threatened to stage another three-day strike during ‘Sport For All Day 2016’ in August if the demands are not met by next month.

The demonstration led to the withdrawl of lifeguard services at Butterfly Beach, Trio Beach, Silverstrand Beach and Clear Water Bay Second Beach and to those beaches beng closed.

In addition, LCSD advised that 12 swimming pools had to close down part of their facilities due to absence of lifeguards.

Alex Kwok Siu-kit, spokesperson for the lifeguards union, told RTHK that around 400 lifeguards attended the Sunday protest. He added that swimming pools in Hong Kong are currently short of 200 lifeguards.

Kwok said the origin of the dispute went back to 2004, when LCSD cut down the number of lifeguards from around 2,400 to 1,580.

Kowk explained “we’ve been fighting for the past decade or so, and had the same demand for eight years. The fact is, for the past six or seven years, every year we have had insufficient manpower, but the LCSD just throws the ball back to the Civil Service Bureau.”

Earlier last month, the union staged a strike at Tuen Mun’s Butterfly Beach during the Dragon Boat Festival to call on the Government to increase staffing levels. Around 400 lifeguards took part, saying they were motivated by concerns for swimmers’ safety at Hong Kong’s pools and beaches. Previously, they held city-wide strikes in 2004, 2005 and 2014.

LCSD Assistant Director Doris Fok Lee Sheung-ling said at least 100 lifeguards failed to clock in during the strike.

LCSD told Apple Daily that it had employed a total of 37 civil service lifeguards between 2015 and 2016. The department also said it had added 180 job openings for seasonal lifeguards, which is a non-civil service post, in the past five years.

There are no vacancies listed for civil service posts on the LCSD website at this time.

Image: The Hong Kong and Kowloon Life Guards’ Union protesting outside Leisure and Culture Services Department’s headquarters. Courtesy of Apple Daily.

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