Bermuda's business leaders are being urged to voluntarily introduce equal opportunity legislation in the workplace -- before it becomes mandatory.

Speaking at this week's Hamilton Rotary, Fair Employment Commission for Northern Ireland chairman Harry Goodman said that business leaders should be proactive in their support for equality initiatives.

"Learn from our experiences in Northern Ireland where volunterism had to be replaced by legal responsibilities,'' Mr. Goodman said.

"In my view there are great benefits to be gained by acting now through voluntary compliance.

"While Northern Ireland businesses found little difficulty in tackling registration, in gathering information and in completing reviews, the need for these additional legal impositions could have been avoided if the voluntary approach had been successful.'' Mr. Goodman said he was pleased that the Island seemed to be intent on tackling the problem of discrimination in the workplace. But he also reminded bosses that people should not be taken on if they were not suitable.

"Access to employment opportunities should not depend on a person's colour, race, religion or gender,'' he said.

"But nobody in Bermuda should get a job just because of their colour either.

"Any society which falls short of such an ideal fails the test of fairness. I was therefore pleased to read that Jerome Dill, Bermuda's Minister of Education and Human Affairs, has publicly stated that the survival of Bermuda in an increasingly competitive world depends on our ability to foster the bonds of unity among all people.

"Clearly these are sentiments with which we, in the Fair Employment Commission, can empathise and fully agree.

"The task for the business community is to help organisations like ours to better understand their business needs. By working in cooperation with businesses, we have achieved much more than we would if we were working against them.''