A spokesman for Bermuda?s construction workers has urged them to attend a union meeting tonight amid concerns about illegal guest workers and health and safety on job sites.

Louis Somner estimates that ?hundreds? of qualified local workers are being robbed of jobs by guest workers who breach their work permits. He called on the Government yesterday to ensure Immigration and labour laws are properly enforced.

?We are aiming for fair employment in our home country. There are people with 34 years experience not getting jobs,? he said. ?People need to make a stand. They are trying to take our livelihoods from us. Wives and mothers ? dismiss your men and have them attend the meeting.?

Mr. Somner, 47, from Hamilton Parish, said he was concerned that local workers are not being paid the overtime and given the leave that they are entitled to. He also alleged that some companies place advertisements in the newspapers with non-existent addresses to reply to ?so they can say they are not getting replies from locals?.

A further complaint, he said, stems from safety laws being ignored by some employers.

?You?ve got guys hanging on the roofs with no safety harnesses. Is it going to take one of them dropping to their death before this is corrected?? he asked.

He said the Premier had not replied to a letter he had written and that he had not received satisfactory responses from Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Randy Horton or the Immigration Department.

?Government are listening but they probably need to change the battery in their hearing aid because it?s not getting through to them,? he quipped.

He said that besides the meeting ? which takes place at the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) headquarters in Union Street at 5 p.m. ? a forum on the issue will also be held before Labour Day. ?We?re hoping to have someone from the Human Rights Commission and the Labour Relations Board plus an attorney specialising in labour laws,? he said. ?There will be a live audience and radio broadcast and people will be able to email in their questions a week ahead.?

United Bermuda Party backbencher and BIU chief organiser George Scott said employers were ?flagrantly? breaching the Employment Act 2000 on matters such as overtime. ?The Labour Relations Officers need more teeth. There are no examples of employers being brought to task,? he said. ?We need checks on construction sites by Labour Relations Officers and Immigration Officers. They are not being proactive.?