Bermuda Air Conditioning’s construction arm has temporarily laid off four Bermudian staff.

The move is in addition to eight overseas employees made redundant over the past two months.

But management at the firm said the Bermudian layoffs were temporary and that the staff would be rehired when more contracts were signed.

Kim Parker, operations manager at BAC, said the construction industry employed staff to work on contracts and, when they were completed, jobs would go unless there was any further work.

He added: “There are temporary layoffs — we have some work and as soon as we have signed contracts we will take them back, but we can’t employ people on a wing and a prayer.

“Over the last two months we have decreased enormously our expatriate workforce as well — eight to ten on the construction side.”

The expatriate workers are now believed to have left the island.

Mr Parker explained construction traditionally slowed in the summer as hotels were reluctant to start work at peak times.

But he said: “There is a tremendous amount of opportunity on the books and very close to being concrete, signed documents, but we can’t really move forward until we have that.”

The BAC Group employs about 180 people in seven divisions, with up to 50 working on the construction side.