Disruptions are expected throughout the Island for all public services on Monday morning as unions have called an urgent meeting regarding the future of furlough days.

The Island’s unions converged at the Bermuda Industrial Union headquarters yesterday to discuss the matter, with the Bermuda Government having set Monday as the deadline for a decision.

BIU president Chris Furbert said that the working group put together to effect budget reductions had missed previous deadlines in coming to a decision. And with the 2014-15 Budget around the corner, time has run out.

“The budget reductions talks we have been having with the Bermuda Government started in November last year,” Mr Furbert said. “We had seven or eight meetings.

“Today we received a letter from the Minister of Finance requesting a decision from us by Monday and as a result of that we felt the need to call a press conference to inform the media and to inform all public service employees about the meeting on Monday at 10am at Union Square.

“You will be aware that when we agreed to furlough days, each union had to go around to its individual membership and get a decision from them concerning furlough days.

“We do feel that the timeframe is a bit tight. The only way we can get a decision by Monday is to have an urgent meeting.”

Asked whether he expected much disruption to services, Mr Furbert said: “You are going to have some interruption to services on Monday; all services.”

Mr Furbert, who said that he could not anticipate how long the disruption to services would last, remained tight-lipped on any further details, insisting that he must speak to the unions’ membership first.

A five-point Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Bermuda Trade Union Congress and the Bermuda Government, which allowed for the institution of mandatory unpaid leave of one day each month for all government workers, comes to an end on March 31.

The MOU, which affects almost 5,000 people, was signed on July 22, 2013 and the furloughs commenced in September 2013. The government employee furlough policy was designed to curb public sector expenditure and reduce the annual budget.