taking the total to 33 in the past four months.

Carpenters, masons and labourers will again be the main tradesmen hit by the latest batch of redundancies from Sea-Land Construction.

Some of the men who are being made redundant have worked for the company between 10 and 12 years.

President of Sea-Land, Mr. Andrew Cooper had predicted that more staff would be laid off when he announced the last redundancies in July.

At that time he said it was the worst period he could remember in the history of the construction industry. He said that a shortage of work was to blame for the latest lay-offs.

"It's true, we are in business like everybody else. We do not have the work.

Basically this is the only job we have, although there are other smaller jobs that are about to start.'' He said that the recession was making things difficult in the construction industry.

Bermuda Industrial Union construction official Mr. Kenyatta Young said he would speak to workers this week before commenting on the prison lay-offs.

Mr. Young said: "I only received confirmation on Friday. I will speak to our people and then there will be a meeting on Wednesday when the subject will be raised.

"We have heard that there is some problem with sub-contractors working while people are being laid off.

"We realise that the job is slowing down and some work on the site is nearing completion, but I want to speak to the people.

"It is another blow to these guys, some of whom have been working for the company for more than 10 years. Where are they going to find work?'' The new prison project at Dockyard has just under a year to run of its 30-month contract.

Mr. Cooper stressed in July that the lay-offs were not connected with the national strike which disrupted the prison work.

It was estimated that the walkout by employees cost Sea-Land Construction up to $15,000.