Devon Springs Recycling Plant employees maintain that managers there have ignored health guidelines for years by allowing loads of refuse to build up to unsafe levels before allowing overtime shifts.

However, Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott told The Royal Gazette he maintained full confidence in the site's management team and said if a major rift did exist at the plant, he would have heard about it from the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU).

He said he would visit the site this week to ensure he knows how well the problems with a recent large backlog of materials were being ironed out.

He said he stood by the explanation that the backlog was caused by "a combination of factors", including machine breakdowns and the increased amounts of refuse from mega cruise ships.

But a site worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said he spoke for all of his 12 colleagues in wanting to "set the record straight".

"If we didn't make a noise about this then it wouldn't be an issue," he said, "but we are the ones whose health is affected. Stuff shouldn't be allowed to ferment for certain periods of time like that, collecting maggots, but management sees fit to leave it. They've been breaking the health and safety codes for years."

The worker said the reasons Mr. Scott was told for the backlog were untrue and said it had arisen because of "personality issues" between staff and management.

He alleged managers held back on starting overtime so they could justify bringing in a second shift.

"Certain managers do their jobs based on personality," he said. "When you try to do that you will find yourself in a rift all of the time and that's where we are now. They allowed this situation to get out of control so that a second shift could be implemented. They tried it before too and they were stopped by the BIU. Now they tried it again and they've been stopped again."

He said workers were held back from working overtime shifts, which began last Tuesday but allegedly usually start as early as April.

"The bottom line for us is that we work for the taxpayer and we want to make it as efficient as possible. The way it is right now though, one person in management is costing the taxpayer a lot of problems. He manages based on personality. "No one wants to hear the raw truth about it because if they did they would have to act on it. It's easy to say the backlog is the result of electrical problems. But that is not true."

UBP MP John Barritt accused Government of neglecting its responsibilities by allowing the backlog to build.

"I've been told that the loads from cruise ships amounted to no more than in previous years," he said. "This really seems to be more of a management issue and it appears that they were ignoring what was mounting up and not allowing workers to do what they needed to. It's all very well to talk about a ten-year plan. The fact is that this situation has existed for some time and you have to plan properly in order to avoid it. That simply has not been done it seems. (Mr. Scott) is manufacturing excuses as far as we're concerned."

Mr. Scott repeated: "It is a series of things that management have been challenged with. Management is not responsible for the mega ship coming in, nor are they responsible for the seasonal increase. Of course we are not complaining about the cruise ship because that is the business we are in. If there was a serious problem between the workers and management I would have been informed about it. There are problems on the site but there would have to be a considerable industrial dispute for it to have contributed to the problems to the extent the worker is alleging."

Mr. Scott said he would visit the site "to underscore my direct interest in this issue. I don't want a backlog like this to ever occur again".