One of the Island's top insurance executives has said he will not allow any of his employees to be treated as "second-class citizens" and has called for Government to show sensitivity in its dealings with expatriate workers.

Speaking in Dubai, where he is a guest of the World Insurance Forum (WIF), Axis Capital Holdings CEO John Charman added that more outsourcing was the way for the Island's biggest industry to continue to thrive without putting more strain on a creaking infrastructure.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette, Mr. Charman said: "Undoubtedly, Government has to be sensitive to the emotions and the well-being of the expatriate community. They bring enormous value to the Island and should not be treated as second-class citizens. And I will not allow any of my staff, whether they're Bermudian or non-Bermudian, to be treated in that way.

"I'm not suggesting it takes place, but Government should be very sensitive as to the way they address these issues, because we're all human beings and we should all have respect for each other."

The Island's insurance sector needs a high percentage of guest workers to fill specialised posts for which too few Bermudians are qualified. And those foreign staff have contributed greatly to the success of the Island as an insurance and reinsurance centre and to its booming economy, Mr. Charman said.

Several industry sources have told this newspaper that there is growing concern in the insurance community over work permit time limits and Government's proposed workplace equity legislation, which would require companies to reflect the racial balance of the workforce throughout its departments, or face hefty fines. Some industry insiders believe it would be unworkable.

Sustainable development is another issue facing the Island and Mr. Charman believes that outsourcing is the way to achieve sustainable growth.

"That's why Bermuda should look at places like Dubai and Singapore in the way they're trying to develop," Mr. Charman said. "Bermuda, by the sheer size of the Island should cause businesses to be as modern as they can be.

The natural way to achieve that is by milking the global outsourcing skills that are now freely available.

"Why do we all want to have our back office operations on the Island? When I first came to Bermuda six years ago, I held a meeting with the industry in which I tried to get them to centralise office operations, to save work permits and to bring in efficiency, to bring a higher level of professionalism to those administrative roles.

"What's happened is that the outsourcing capabilities of industry are so great is that you don't need to be in Bermuda, you can be anywhere. The technology can transfer the data and the data can be processed efficiently in terms of time, because you can outsource to a different time zone and have the work done and returned to you by morning.

"Outsourcing is not a threat to Bermuda companies, it's a partnership which can allow them to grow."

Axis recently announced that it had topped $1 billion in net income for the first time in its six-year history in 2007.

Mr. Charman said much of that success was down to the day-to-day involvement of the senior management in underwriting activities.

"Because we're a co-ordinated and connected company, where the senior management of the company is deeply embedded in the underwriting activity of the company, we can apply all of our intellectual capital for what it's worth and that's a great differentiator," Mr. Charman said.