Union leader Derrick Burgess is crying foul over a job advert which he says is discriminatory because it bars applicants with child support arrears and pending court cases.

But Bermuda Pest Control Manager Walter Saul defended his advert which he said had weeded out time wasters who were a drain on the business.

The advertisement, which appeared in Wednesday and yesterday's editions of The Royal Gazette, stipulated that posts at the Warwick-based company were for applicants who:

do not have current or pending court cases

do not have child support payments still owing

realise that Mondays are not automatic sick days

use sick days for genuine illnesses only

are on time for at least nine out of ten working days

are willing to work in return for pay.

When The Royal Gazette pointed the advert out to Bermuda Industrial Union President Mr. Burgess he said: "Good Lord! This is crazy. They can't do this, it's not right.

"You need the job if you owe child payments.

"This is just discriminatory and I would go so far as to say it goes against human rights and I will be making an inquiry into this with the Human Rights Commission."

Mr. Burgess was angry with the mention of court cases.

He said: "You could have a court case but not be guilt

"Everybody gets a speeding ticket but that rules them out regardless of whether are the best employee in the world. Employees are going to think about whether they want to work with these people."

Human Rights Commission Acting Executive Officer David Wilson said the advert's clauses on court appearances and child support debt contravened the spirit of the Human Rights Act.

He said it was not in breach of the Act but had sailed "perilously close".

He said it was illegal to bar people from jobs because of previous convictions but by talking about current or pending cases the advert narrowly avoided that.

He said the Commission would be asking for the advert to be reworded or withdrawn.

However Mr. Saul said the advert had already ended its run.

He said: "I figured it would ruffle a few feathers."

He admitted the stipulation on court cases could have been better worded but he said it was designed to identify applicants who had a clean record but who would then demand lots of time off for their case.

"We are not talking about minor court cases,'' he said.

"I am talking about where you know you have lengthy court procedures because you haven't paid 12 speeding tickets and the Police are looking for you or you stabbed a guy outside a night club."

When The Royal Gazette pointed out that people might have been falsely accused Mr. Saul said: "True enough, they can apply after they are done.

"Why go and get a job if you know you are going to be tied up in court? But I don't have a problem with jury duty.

"We are not a large company and we don't have a lot of backup."

Mr. Saul said all of his staff of fewer than 20 were locals while he had been on the Island for 15 years.

"We are not one of those companies who specifies applicants speak Arabic and be able to play a Mozart concerto and have lived in 12 different countries, if you know what I mean.

"You will notice we don't specify they have any pest control experience, we will train them. We are looking for personal qualities."

He said the controversial stipulations had been put in the advert at the request of current employees fed up of having to cover for the slackers.

He said last year an employee had joined owing $16,000 in child support and was given a jail term shortly afterwards.

Mr. Saul said the employee was then let out on work release scheme but had failed to show up.

Mr. Saul said five out of six recruits taken on by the company last September had since let the company down.

He said one had needed daily visits to St. Brendan's, one was arrested over a stabbing incident while the others were late or failed to show up at all.

Mr Saul said: "We are not being hard core. I have employed work release prisoners and held jobs open when staff were locked up for three months."

But Mr. Saul assured his customers he did not employ prisoners for jobs inside homes.

He continued: "We are not a three strikes and you are out firm. It's more like a dozen tries. This is part of doing business in Bermuda."

"I don't like to dismiss staff but most staff seem to dismiss themselves by not showing up for work."

He said his company had started to run adverts with clauses requiring such things as honesty and punctuality after getting up to 80 applications mostly from people who could not fill out the form properly.

He said the latest advert had received less than a handful of applicants and one of the two posts had already been filled.

However he said even with those with court cases pending or child support money owing were not automatically barred from applying for the post which has a deadline of August 31.

Mr. Saul said: "If they have all the other qualities the chances are they will want to explain it."

BIU leader Derrick Burgess also attacked a job advert placed by Island Properties for two landscape gardeners run in yesterday's Royal Gazette.

It says applicants must be willing to work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

Mr. Burgess said the long hours contravened International Labour Organisation regulations and were designed to discourage Bermudians with families from applying.

He said: "This type of advert is tailored to bringing someone in. In Bermuda it's a 40 hour, five day week. They should say overtime is available - they can't make it a requirement of the job."