It was high mass day, this Saturday, November 9, for the National Sea Rescue Society (SNSM) of Charente-Maritime. The volunteers met at the Family Fun Park in Meschers-sur-Gironde for a general assembly in the presence, in particular, of the national president Emmanuel de Oliveira. The opportunity to take stock of projects, concerns and satisfactions. Among the first is the desire to develop beach surveillance in the department. Already, in 2024, the SNSM was the only one to respond to the call for tenders from the Royan Atlantique urban community, whose beaches were until then monitored by firefighters from the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis ).
The return of sea rescuers to the beaches of the Royan area was not, however, in itself, a revolution since they had carried out this mission until 2010. “I believe that the elected officials of the Royan area are satisfied. We have good reasons to believe that we will continue to work together,” indicates the departmental delegate of the SNSM Philippe de Bonnaventure. And this, even if this change had a cost. The Sdis firefighters were indeed carrying out shifts. They were not not paid but compensated without the employer paying social security contributions. They did not contribute to social security and did not have sick leave. The SNSM supervisors have the status of community employees. And when firefighters worked 50 hours per week, their successors are limited to 43 hours.
The president of Cara Vincent Barraud had at the time raised this point of labor law and indicated that “in any case, this story of vacations was not going to last. » He emphasized that “it was fairer for these young people, often students, who until then could not count these hours in the calculation of their future retirement. » The additional cost was estimated at 500,000 euros.
An essential mission
Philippe de Bonnaventure considers that this beach surveillance mission is essential. “We have two training centers in La Rochelle and Rochefort in which we train around fifty lifeguards every year. Today we can offer them 25 beaches to watch in summer out of the 61 in the department. We are ready to go even further. I know that municipalities on the Île de Ré or Île d'Oléron could be interested…”
For the departmental delegate, “the recruitment of volunteers does not represent a problem for the six sea rescue stations (La Rochelle, Île de Ré, Île d'Aix, La Tremblade, La Cotinière and Royan). of volunteers even if the average age remains high. »
As for financing, the SNSM, whose revenue is 70% based on donations, knows that subsidies will dry up. “We know the state of public finances. We will be forced to make our boats last longer by smoothing the renewal of the fleet. » Which is called belt tightening.
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