Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC) board chairman Fernance Perry made comments so upsetting to his staff, his programme manager is said to have walked out of a meeting yesterday.

Programme manager Darlene Ming was reportedly so offended by his remarks, she walked out, according to a source.

The employee said Mr. Perry asked Ms Ming to outline the job duties of her personnel assistant during a management meeting. Her assistant was one of three employees laid-off last week.

The source said: "Mr. Perry went to the station to meet with the managers but irritated them so much that the programme manager walked out of the meeting.

"First of all he laid off her only assistant without consulting her and then today he asked her what her assistant did. Darlene Ming outlined all of her tasks and then he said, 'If she is doing all of that, why do I need you?'

"Ms Ming apparently said, 'I have run this station in the absence of a CEO (following Bill Craig's departure) and you have commended me for it. Mr. Perry, you need to look at the language you are using and if you make that comment one more time, I'm going to pick up my bag and walk out'.

"But then Mr. Perry said, 'If I have your assistant why do I need you?', so she picked up her bag and walked out."

The employee said he understood Ms Ming had not quit. Neither had she been fired.

BBC news editor Jannell Ford told The Royal Gazette she was also upset by Mr. Perry's comments.

On Friday this newspaper reported that Mr. Perry had sent her outside with the message to staff of: "Go home and get off my property."

Employees said Ms Ford was told to deliver the message shortly after Thursday's walkout in protest at their colleagues being laid-off.

On Sunday however, Mr. Perry told this newspaper that this message was "nonsense". He said he had only spoken to a BIU representative along these lines.

"I told Mrs. (Molly) Burgess that if these people were not going to work then they were not to hang around the property, I did not say my property," Mr. Perry told The Royal Gazette.

Yesterday however, Ms Ford insisted she had been instructed by Mr. Perry to deliver the message.

The BBC news editor told The Royal Gazette: "I stand by this comment. He (Mr. Perry) said those remarks and I then went out to speak to the staff."

However, she said she did not wish to comment further on the row.

Meanwhile, former BBC CEO and president Bill Craig also took issue with remarks made by board member Rick Richardson.

Mr. Richardson told The Royal Gazette last week: "Mr. Perry objected to redundancies proposed by Bill Craig. He has tried to keep everyone employed thus the lay-off route."

But Mr. Craig said yesterday this was incorrect, that he had "not proposed any redundancies".

"My view is the station doesn't need any redundancies. It's a matter of just properly managing the current staff they have.

"The station has adequate financial resources to keep it afloat. It is all about managing it and properly using the people resources that are there, and that hasn't been going on for a number of years from what I've been able to determine."