Bermuda Industrial Union President Chris Furbert is sticking to his claim that the union was not consulted over the elimination of term limits.Appearing as a guest on the Sherri Simmons Show, Mr Furbert acknowledged that the Home Affairs Ministry had sent an e-mail on January 23 to two labour representatives, including himself, on a committee of stakeholders reviewing work permit policy.But, he said, that committee was formed by the former government and he was not clear whether he was still a member, given that the same Minister had decided not to include the BIU on the Immigration Board.Mr Furbert also indicated that the deadline given for a response — January 28 — was too soon.“Two days later, the Minister made the announcement (eliminating term limits)” he said. “The question now is what is going to be considered a reasonable amount of time for consultation?”He said: “It appears to me that everything has to be changed by yesterday.”He admitted that the BIU did not reply to the e-mail but said, in any event, that the Labour Relations Council — with representatives from all the trade unions and Government — would have been the appropriate body to consult with on the term limits policy.Mr Furbert also clarified that consultation took place with the former Minister in charge of Immigration matters, Patrice Minors, on work permits but not on term limits — refuting a claim by Premier Craig Cannonier last week.“We’re hoping going forward that this whole question of consultation will get better instead of getting worse.”He said: “Proper dialogue needs to take place with all the stakeholders. You cannot just say we spoke to one union and as a result we are going forward. It affects the whole communityAsked by a caller if the union will not be taking any action with respect to the elimination of the term limit policy, Mr Furbert encouraged the public to come out to a forum on the matter next week.Mr Furbert was also asked the union’s position on term limits. “If the current Government sees that term limits is causing a problem as far as the Minister is concerned, then what we need to do now is make sure all the protections are in place before removing it,” he said.The Bermuda Trade Union Congress claimed at a press conference last week that Government had made a decision to eliminate term limits without consulting labour. But the Home Affairs Ministry then released a copy of an e-mail sent to stakeholders, including Mr Furbert, then BTUC President Shine Hayward and Anthony Wolffe of the Bermuda Public Services Union.The e-mail invited recipients to consider and give feedback to the Ministry’s Impact Assessment on the Elimination of Term Limits, which was attached but not shared with the media.“The public should know that Mr Chris Furbert of the BIU and Mr Anthony Wolffe, a BPSU representative, both represent the BTUC on the Work Permit Stakeholder Group,” the Ministry said.According to the Ministry the BTUC was the only group that did not respond.Following yesterday’s radio show appearance, Mr Furbert issued a statement intended to clarify his involvement on the Work Permit Stakeholder Group.He was invited to review a draft document, “Work Permit Policies 2012” and attended a stakeholder meeting organised by then Minister Patrice Minors on October 12, Mr Furbert says in the statement.“We started the day’s consultation process with the draft document and by end of the day there were some amendments made to the document, so in my opinion it was a work in progress as there was no final document produced by Minister Minors.“It is my understanding that the consensus was as outlined in the document, that “unless the work permit holder is otherwise exempt, he or she will be limited to a maximum term of ten years, although there were some employers in the room who wanted ‘term limits’ removed.“Minister Fahy is misleading the public by insinuating that I and Mr Anthony Wolffe, as representatives of the Bermuda Trade Union Congress, participated in a more recent discussion on the document produced by the former Minister.“However, we have heard Premier Mr Craig Cannonier tell the media last week Friday, February 1 2013, that consultation took place under the PLP Government. Premier Cannonier also suggested that no further consultation was necessary and that ‘it was time to move swiftly and get this done.’“As president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, I am on record as stating that term limits must stay to protect Bermudian workers until the work permit policies in Bermuda are improved upon at the Department of Immigration.”