Disruption to the Island's ferry service was not caused by industrial action, but is over a safety issue, Bermuda Industrial Union President Chris Furbert said last night.

However, Mr. Furbert refused to elaborate on the issue and whether it pertains to Marine and Ports workers, passengers or the boats themselves.

And last night Premier and Transport Minister Ewart Brown refused to comment on the situation.

Cancellations to the service began on Tuesday and the only ferries running were the Paget and Warwick services.

Mr. Furbert said the workers are not on strike but rather the issue has to do with safety on the boats. "We're still in discussions with management regarding the boats. They're not on strike.

"The workers are making their time to work. There are some issues with the boats that they're concerned about. There are safety concerns."

However, Government insiders have said the workers are in fact on strike and didn't give an agreed 21-day notice in order to do it.

Last night Opposition leader Kim Swan said: "It is a basic responsibility of the Government to make sure the public is fully informed whenever public services are disrupted.

"This is especially so for public transportation, which is used by thousands of people each day to get to and from work and school.

"As of this writing — 5 p.m. on September 30 — two full working days have passed with more confusion than clarity about disrupted ferry services."

He continued: "The Premier, as Transportation Minister, needs to step up to the wicket to make sure the public gets accurate, up-to-date information on what services remain in operation and which ones are shut down."

Mr. Swan said Dr. Brown also needs to explain why the ferries are not operating.

"The silence surrounding the dispute and the failure of the Minister to make sure the public receives information in a timely, useful manner is very peculiar.

"This is the second service disruption in as many weeks and the Premier should advise the public if we can expect more in the days ahead", he added.

Bermuda Democratic Alliance MP Shawn Crockwell said his party was concerned about the safety issue as well.

"From our perspective, we don't know anymore but our concern is with the safety of the vessels because this is not the first time there been mechanical issues.

"We can recall back to 2005 there were stoppages as far as mechanical difficulties with the ferries. We will support the workers if they're saying something needs to happen."

He continued: "We think the Minister of Transport needs to come out and update the public as to what is going on and what they plan to do about it.

"For a very long time the Premier's greatest achievement was fast ferries and it's been said that these ferries are not up to snuff for Bermuda.

"Now we have a situation where people are being significantly inconvenienced and we're not getting a clear answer from Government as to what's going on.

"And how they have handled it, there was no information given to the commuters. We understand that things happen but it's how they handled it.

"Across the board, it doesn't look really good but hopefully they will have resolved it shortly."

Last night Director of Marine and Ports, Francis Richardson, said there would be a ferry service on the Blue Route today, which includes the commuter service to Cavello Bay, Watford Bridge and Dockyard. The Pink Route (Harbour/Warwick/Paget) remains in service.

"The Department of Marine and Ports would like to take this opportunity to extend its apologies for any inconvenience caused to the public, particularly to those residents who use the ferries as their primary mode of transportation."

The ferry workers' action comes little more than a week after bus drivers refused to operate in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor.

They claimed to be worried about safety, leading to all public buses being taken off the road for the day, on September 21.

Dr. Brown declared the drivers' actions "amazingly insensitive" and "very unBermudian". It was later reported that the drivers received an apology from a Transport official.