The Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) is still considering joining the recently-formed Bermuda Trade Union Congress (BTUC), BIU President Derrick Burgess said last night.

The BIU, Bermuda's largest union, has declined to join the labour confederation, which was set up two years ago.

The Island's other unions lost patience with the BIU in 2000 and pressed ahead because they said they could not wait forever for the BIU to make decision.

The House of Assembly on Friday passed an amendment to the 1965 Trade Union Act to recognise the BTUC.

The umbrella organisation will not have the power to negotiate with employers or to call strikes, but it will be consulted by Government over employment law, and its representatives will sit on various government boards.

Formally recognising the BTUC also paves the way for its members now to be sent to represent Bermuda at International Labour Organisation (ILO) conferences in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mystery surrounds why the BIU has been reticent about joining the BTUC, and Mr. Burgess refused last night to say what the problem had been.

But he said: "I don't know (if we will join) at this point, we haven't decided, but we have still got it under consideration."

Mr. Burgess said the BTUC may now represent Bermuda at ILO meetings. It was up to the Government to decide which organisation to send, and on previous occasions it had allowed more than one union to attend, he said.

At the time the BTUC was formed in 2000, other unions said they were not clear why the BIU had objected to joining.

A union source said at the time: "It wasn't as if the BIU was saying 'we're not joining unless this or that happens'. Then we could have negotiated. They weren't saying anything."

The body - comprising most of the islands unions including the Bermuda Public Services Union, and associations representing school principals, firemen, prison officers, electrical workers, teachers and musicians - will consult with Government over labour law.

But on Friday Labour Minister Terry Lister said the body would not act as a union in negotiating between workers and employers. He said the BTUC would sit on Government boards, provide training and send representatives to the annual International Labour Organisation conference.

He said: "It's important to note that each member of a federation will retain its autonomy and will function as any trade union or association that is separate and apart from the federation."

The Trade Union Amendment Act 2002 will amend the 1965 act expanding the definition of a trade union to include a federation of unions but he said the federation will not have the power to call a strike or negotiate an agreement on behalf of a member. Instead the BTUC will have a guiding role.

He said Government welcomed the BTUC as another building block for three-way dialogue between workers, employers and Government.

Efforts to bring the unions together began back in the early 1980s, said Mr. Lister, with a joint think tank on economic matters.

A 1995 bid to form the TUC failed but succeeded in 2000 although the island's largest union, the BIU opted to stay independent. He said the BTUC would provide a forum for trade unions to hammer out issues and respond to new challenges.

He said: "Corporations through mergers, acquisitions and other business alliances strive to resolve problems of globalisation within the workplace. "Likewise trade unions and associations are amalgamating and coming together to speak and act in one accord in facing the challenges within the sphere on industrial relations created by globalisation."

He said union umbrella organisations were popular the world over with the UK's Trade Union Congress lobbying Government for workers and the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) bringing together regional trade unions to speak across international divides.

Mr. Lister said the BTUC had been inspired by the CCL, which has BIU President Burgess as vice president, to come together to study, educate and look at labour law.

Mr. Burgess welcomed the bill but he said it would not ensure greater clout at the ILO conference because, as Labour Minister Terry Lister had earlier pointed out when Bermuda attended as part of the British delegation and had to seek permission to speak. Mr. Burgess said more laws were broken by employers than unions in Bermuda and that bosses though labour law was just written to shackle workers. He said: "There's a lot of skulduggery."

He said when Government sent an issue to arbitration both unions and bosses should cease hostilities rather than just the unions. "There has got to be a level playing field."

He said the press were always interested in the union's financial statements to find out what union leaders were paid but never dug for information about what bosses in private industry and banks were awarding themselves.

He said: "I haven't anything to hide and I have got nowhere to hide it."

Opposition Leader Dr. Grant Gibbons said the banks published their figures every year but Mr. Burgess said some of the financial scandals such as Enron would not have happened if there was more public scrutiny of the private sector.

Earlier Opposition Leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin had called for more accountability in the way unions operated and called for the sunshine of public scrutiny to be shone on their affairs. She backed the bill and the coming together of unions which she said boded well for employers and employees.

Former BIU President - and a Government backbencher as well - Ottiwell Simmons backed the bill and said the TUC was a good idea but he had not found the time to help form it when he was leader of the BIU.