Overseas tourism staff refused to meet with bosses on an individual basis yesterday, out of "distrust" of management according to a source.

The employee said colleagues in the North America sales team were refusing to meet Civil Service head Kenneth Dill, Permanent Secretary of Tourism and Transport Cherie Whitter, and Acting Director of Tourism Ian MacIntyre, without union representation.

The civil servants announced the restructuring of the Overseas Tourism Office on Monday in a group meeting, but reportedly failed to give information on job descriptions and salaries.

According to the source, the overseas department is to be reorganised into 12 positions, with eight sales jobs outsourced to US company Sales Focus. The 20 current members of staff will now have to reapply for 12 jobs or choose redundancy, or return to the Island and find a job in the Government of Bermuda.

According to the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of losing her livelihood, employees felt "distrustful" that the Government team was unable to offer any "solid" information on the new roles or alternative positions in the civil service back on the Island.

"People feel deceived and that this has been rushed," she said. "There has been a lack of information and we feel management are not forthright with anything.

"We found out our jobs were being outsourced on the Internet before they even told us, so we do not trust management.

"They did not even have any job descriptions or salaries associated with the new reorganisation. They wanted to meet today with all the employees on a one-to-one basis but we refused.

"We had nothing in writing, no job descriptions, so there was nothing to discuss. We felt it would be a waste of our time.

"We also all agreed that we would not meet them without a union representative."

The woman said some members of staff received letters yesterday afternoon outlining their options, with some job descriptions, but this was only after colleagues had "demanded the information".

"People are outraged we have to reapply for our jobs," said the staff member. "Our other options are redundancy pay, or to return to Bermuda. But even then we have not had any guarantees we will secure a job in the civil service."

She said contracts for the 20 employees are due to end on September 1, but that staff only have until this Tuesday to reapply for the Overseas Tourism Office positions — via the Bermuda Government website. "Management are moving fast-forward with this and so we are asking them to slow down the process and to have a rethink," said the source.

"We are annoyed at the way this has been handled, and are not going to meet with them until they are more prepared and have all the facts on salaries and job descriptions."

She said: "The mood is quite sombre at the moment as we only have one pay cheque to go and people are worried about their finances.

"As from September 1, in addition to being unemployed, some of us will also be homeless as we will have to return to Bermuda, and not everyone has a mother whose couch they can sleep on.

"We have been asking if Government will help us with shipping costs back to Bermuda and with temporary accommodation on the Island, but were told this would be looked at on a case-by-case basis. People are very upset as there doesn't seem to be any thought which has gone into this."

The employee however, added that staff had been offered the services of a "grief counsellor" who specialises in job losses and redundancies.

The 20 Bermudian workers are aged from their twenties to early-fifties. "Staff were told earlier this month they were being made redundant on five weeks' notice after Cabinet agreed to outsource sales to the US firm Sales Focus.

The workers claim Government has ignored questions about their future for months, and that the jobs shake-up will split up families and homes in the US, due to staff having to move back to the Island.

Government did not respond to a request from The Royal Gazette for an update on the meetings last night.