Massively increased fines and on the spot penalties are on the cards for negligent employers as Government seeks to beef up the Health and Safety Act.

And the 19-year-old law will be updated to cover new working conditions after a review involving business and labour.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said: "I don't have the statistics but accidents do happen in the workplace.

"With this we are trying to reduce or even eliminate them.

"When people think about health and safety they only think about construction sites and masonry hitting someone on the head.

"We are now going around asking persons for input so we can review what legislation we do have and send forward quite a number of proposals.

"Whether it's for someone working with a drilling machine who doesn't have ear plugs or the way in which we use our computers.'' Health and Safety Officer Doris Foley explained that there had been no comprehensive review of health and safety legislation since 1982.

Safety laws falling behind Workers have no rights to remove themselves from dangerous situations.

Regulations on protective clothing and equipment do not address respiratory protection, skin protection, hand protection, maintenance of equipment and training while welders are not required to wear face protection.

A draft document recommends setting up health and safety committees at companies while a health and safety representative would be required at firms of less than five people.

Laws on lifting, which currently only apply to building sites, would be widened to include other trades including the docks.

The document also called for stronger regulation of electrical equipment.

It said: "There is a lack of specific requirements to regulate the implementation of vital safety measures for this notably high-risk area of work where death and serious injury may result from unsafe conditions and actions.'' Ms Foley said: "We are looking at the ILO convention to bring our laws up to date. We are falling behind, we did a comparison.'' Currently first-time summary convictions can cost an employer $5,000 or land them a jail term of not more than one year.

Both the jail term and the fine can be doubled for repeat offenders.

"We are hoping to amend this, we are looking at the economic situation -- it's got to be a deterrent,'' said Ms Foley.

"We are looking at increasing it. When you compare it to Canada, the States or Australia the fines can be $50-100,000 and even $250,000 for the big corporate employers so five or ten thousand is just a drop in the bucket.'' Employees who fail to use safety equipment could soon be hit with fines while the employer might be liable if they had failed to make it available.

"If someone is not wearing a safety helmet we can issue a ticket,'' Ms Foley said.

"All this is up for discussion. The employee has a responsibility as well as the employer. They have to look out for their own safety as well as others that their work affects.'' She said top of the accident lists were people falling on construction sites, eye injuries, people being hit by articles and by particles coming off machinery such as metal or wood fragments.

Office workers were being hit with repetitive strain injury said Ms Foley.

There will also be new provisions for people working in confined spaces.

Ms. Foley said: "We have had a number of fatalities where people died in water tanks when they were cleaning them out. They use compressors to suck out the water.

"It's a confined space and the Co2 overcomes them.

"Our legislation will be specific to the employer and employee but people do work around the home and place themselves in jeopardy.'' People working in confined spaces might be required to test the environment before entering it and to keep in contact with people outside.

The plan to update health and safety law was welcomed by Bermuda Industrial Union President Derrick Burgess.

He said: "We are way behind Europe on health and safety.

"When you take the construction industry for example they are very strict over there. We need to take a page from their policies.

"A lot of accidents don't get reported when people don't get too badly hurt.

"We have got to be serious about it and I am sure the Minister intends to be serious -- that's why he's having this review. I commend the Minister.

"But you can't just have it in place just to say it's there. We need to police it.

Parties wishing to submit suggestions to update the law must write to the Ministry of Health and Family Services by May 11.