Members of the Hamilton Lion's Club got to learn first hand about CURE's recently published survey of the workforce.

CURE's Executive Officer Sharol Simmons outlined the results of the survey with a powerpoint presentation at the club's weekly lunchtime meeting.

Ms Simmons presentation ended with the survey's key findings - that in contrast to whites, blacks were under-represented at the executive and management levels, over-represented at the lower income levels, and underrepresented in the international business sector.

Blacks also received most of the mortgage subsidies paid out by employers, while whites received the lion's share of housing allowances, according to the survey.

She also pointed out that the report concluded that while 35 percent of the employees surveyed received annual bonuses, it was important to assess bonus levels as well.

"CURE is committed to working with the business community to achieve its mandate to eliminate institutional racial discrimination and, through partnership, to ensure that the entire Bermudian community are the beneficiaries of this important initiative," she reassured her audience.

Ms Simmons also repeated the oft-stated promise that "there will be neither witch hunts nor recriminations." Instead CURE will be meeting with selected businesses across the spectrum to determine what was working and to find ways of assisting those companies which are below the industry norm.

"The question is where do we go from here and how can we move forward from here," she told The Royal Gazette later.

At question time the audience was mainly concerned with what the survey didn't include, however. One man said that he was "disturbed" that people were not asked whether the employees were Bermudian or not.

Another said he would have liked to have seen educational qualifications and requirements included. A third said that many local families, black and white, encouraged their children to pursue professions such as medicine or law and perhaps that had an impact on the numbers in management positions in business.

"We are not blaming anyone for anything," said Ms Simmons in response to the last comment. She added that the survey used the same criteria used in the annual employment survey and businesses had expressed some concern as to the number of questions in the form.

In response to another question Ms Simmons said that CURE was not in a position to make comparisons with other questions, as it was not clear that comparable surveys are done elsewhere.

None of the questions touched on resolving institutional discrimination in the Bermuda workplace, it was pointed out to Ms Simmons.

Asked if she found that white people were defensive when presented with such statistics she said she has often wondered about that.

"Maybe people are unwilling to accept that this profile is accurate," she said. "The facts speak for themselves - there's nothing flawed with this survey. When it comes to looking at the workplace by race, it's plain. The question is where do we go from here. And how can we move forward. It means taking responsibility and ownership."