DESPITE lip service to the contrary, Government was doing nothing to empower the average black Bermudian, Shadow Minister for Labour and Home Affairs, Patricia Gordon-Pamplin claimed yesterday.

And she accused Premier Jennifer Smith of "intentionally misleading the country," when she recently stated that an additional 2,000 jobs had been created under the Progressive Labour Party.

A realistic account of the situation based on available statistics, said Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin, was that more work permits had been issued to foreign workers while greater numbers of Bermudians - mainly blacks - had lost their jobs.

"It is of extreme concern that the number of expat workers continues to rise significantly, and while we can accept that the specialty nature of some permits would require expat workers to fill certain jobs, it is of grave concern that 1,000 fewer Bermudians were employed. It would therefore suggest that an awful lot of expats have displaced Bermudians in the workforce.

"(The) statistics show that the PLP Government has had no compunction about flying in the face of their own promise to stem the issuance of work permits for foreign workers. How much longer can we trust the rhetoric?"

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said that while the Premier informed the public that 2,000 jobs had been created since the PLP came into power four years ago, the reality was that 1,000 Bermudians had lost jobs in 2001 alone and that 750 of those positions had been held by black Bermudians. Last year, she added, the overall number of jobs had fallen by 420.

"Clearly the Smith Government's policies are not reaching those masses to whom they promised employment, and are certainly not assisting in ensuring that Bermudians have the ability to be employed...So while the Government spews its diatribe about empowering black people, clearly the statistics do not lend credence to their claims."

Speaking in Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin's absence, Shadow Labour & Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley called for balance. The PLP, he said, was allowing more work permit holders into the island but doing nothing to help those Bermudians who were out of work gain employment. "This shows a glaring example of where the PLP is wrong. We have nothing against work permit holders, clearly they're needed, but Bermudians have been disadvantaged since 1998."

He added that instead of simply preaching about empowerment, Government needed to establish a programme which would, a) ensure that Bermudians received the education needed to obtain a job and, b) ensure that, with the aid of businesses, employees received training to increase their experience and strengthen their work ethic.

"I thought the PLP would have made a better effort to move Bermudians forward," he said. "Clearly when you look at the free enterprise system, the reality is that very few people are actually owners of a business; the vast majority are employees. The opportunities for Bermudians to be empowered has clearly slipped when overall jobs have gone up but the number of Bermudians employed has gone down. It goes to show (the PLP's) course of action is wrong."

Minister of Labour & Home Affairs Terry Lister did not respond by press time.