The Bermuda Employers Council yesterday welcomed an assurance from Government that the new Berkeley Institute development will not be operated as a union site - but urged contractors to get in touch if the promise was broken.

Executive director Malcolm Dixon said he had spent the last three days investigating claims the $70 million project was only being made available to contractors who were willing to unionise their staff.

And he said his inquiries had only proved to substantiate allegations that sub-contractors were being told by general contractor, Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd., that they had to ensure all staff working on the site were members of the Bermuda Industrial Union, or face losing the work.

Mr. Dixon said: "Following our investigation, and the statement released by Government making clear that nobody should be discriminated against as to whether or not they are a member of the union, we trust that Pro-Active will now appoint sub-contractors on the normal merits, such as their price, experience, knowledge and quality of their work and not on whether or not they are in a union.

"And if there is anything to the contrary, then we would certainly like to hear about it. We would encourage contractors to contact us.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and hope that everything will now settle down so work can get underway without any undue pressures.

"It was important, from a labour relations aspect, that this matter was resolved very quickly, not only as far as this project was concerned, but for future sites, too. It is vital that the normal processes and procedures prevail."

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox told The Royal Gazette she had no involvement in the issue, but said that if any individual or contracting firm had concerns about labour issues, such as how the work was being distributed, they should contact her Ministry and the concerns would be investigated.

The Bermuda Construction Association echoed comments made by the Employers Council when it said it would monitor the progress.

The Association said: "We are happy to hear that the project is no longer being declared as a union site, and we would welcome receipt of confirmation from our members that this, in fact, is the case.

"We would certainly like to hear from our members that any previous restrictions have now been removed."

Contractors told The Royal Gazette they had been told by Pro-Active that they had been awarded contracts, only to then be told that they must negotiate with the BIU to ensure the employees working on the site were paid up members.

Some firms offered to pay the weekly union dues themselves in order to win the contracts after their staff had said they did not wish to join.

President of the union, Derrick Burgess, who is also a Government backbencher, said the development had been declared a "union site".

But contractors labelled the demand as blackmail, undemocratic, discriminatory and illegal.

Shadow Labour and Home Affairs Minister Michael Dunkley condemned Government for not ordering an investigation into the fiasco and said it was not good enough for it to now only give the public an assurance that all contractors would be treated equally.

He said an inquiry should be held to establish why the development was declared a union site, and on who's authority.

Talking about the statement from Acting Works and Engineering Minister Randy Horton, Mr. Dunkley said: "It walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck - in fact, it is a duck.

"All we have heard from the acting minister is sweet nothings. The fact remains that everyone involved in the construction industry has been making these allegations. They can't all be wrong.

"To top it all off, these claims were verified by the union president Derrick Burgess.

"If the acting minister himself is unable to shed any light on this issue, you would think that he and the Labour and Home Affairs Minister would launch an investigation themselves, speak to people and get to the bottom of it.

"At the very least, the Government should be investigating."