The Island?s trade unions appear to have been given an early Labour Day present with Premier Alex Scott?s appointment of former Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess as the new Home Affairs Minister. Mr. Burgess? appointment was the most surprising move as Mr. Scott shuffled his Cabinet in the wake of Terry Lister?s resignation as Education Minister.

Mr. Scott again seems to have taken advantage of a departure in one Ministry to embark on a wider shuffle, just as he did when the late Eugene Cox died while holding the Finance portfolio. In this case, Mr. Lister?s resignation for personal reasons saw Mr. Scott move Neletha Butterfield from Environment to Education.

To some extent, that move made sense, given that Ms Butterfield is a former educator whose seat in Environment, where she generally had a good reputation, had become a good deal hotter after she approved the special development order for Loughlands and then apparently lost the fight over the siting of the new King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Whether she will find Education ? where many political careers have ended ? easier remains to be seen, but she does at least have expertise in the field.

What is surprising is the move of Randy Horton from Home Affairs, where he had at least built a reputation for steadiness, to Environment. This move is difficult to understand on a number of levels.

Mr. Horton has done a credible job in a complex Ministry, where difficult and often politically delicate decisions have to be made daily on everything from public safety to the prisons to immigration to labour relations.

On labour, he built a reputation for being an honest broker, which is absolutely essential in an arena that can often turn into a quagmire of competing interests. Mr. Horton had also embarked on a major anti-crime initiative that was trumpeted by the Premier just a few weeks ago, so it is somewhat surprising that Mr. Scott decided to move him right now.

Then too, Mr. Burgess? appointment will raise eyebrows. It is true that Mr. Burgess was seen as something of a moderating influence in the Bermuda Industrial Union and he has rightly been praised for helping bring industrial peace to the hotel industry.

But he remains a union man through and through, and it is a certainty that his appointment has sent a shudder through boardrooms around Hamilton. With a range of delicate issues coming up, not least term limits for work permit holders which start to take effect next year, Mr. Burgess will have to work hard to show that he can be fair to both unions and employers.

Mr. Scott argued yesterday that the former United Bermuda Party government had appointed leading businessmen to the Home Affairs portfolio and that Mr. Burgess? undoubted expertise with labour would be a boon. The opposite argument is that most of the UBP?s Home Affairs Minister were moderates who were sympathetic to the needs of labour, in spite of, or perhaps because of, their good management records.

Mr. Burgess may well surprise everyone. But the fact remains that he will come into office burdened with high expectations from his former union colleagues and suspicion from employers. He may well end up disappointing the unions while failing to satisfy the employers.

He may also have to deal with a certain amount of professional hostility. It was well nigh impossible for Mr. Burgess to hold a Cabinet post while he was president of the BIU and he certainly served his time on the backbenches. But his rise to one of the top two Ministries in Government from the back bench is nothing short of meteoric, and some of his colleagues may wonder what it is that Mr. Scott sees in him that they apparently lack.