because she was pregnant.

Bermuda Industrial Union president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons said in the House of the Assembly on Friday that the woman, a dental hygienist, was replaced by a white Canadian.

The case has "all the ingredients of discrimination'', he said during a debate on the budget for the Ministry of Community Affairs, which has responsibility for human rights.

"We don't see any positive results coming out of the large number of complaints that go before the Human Rights Commission,'' said Mr. Simmons, who did not identify the woman.

"It's almost like it's a waste of time to go there.'' An example was a case where a white dentist dismissed his black hygienist because she was pregnant, he said.

"The lady went and reported the matter to me and then to the human rights people.'' The case had not yet been dealt with, said Mr. Simmons, MP for Pembroke East.

And the woman had not received any severance or maternity pay.

"If we have a human rights department in Bermuda and law to deal with human rights, all we're asking is that human beings receive their rights.'' Government came under more fire over human rights in Friday's debate. Shadow community affairs minister Mr. Reginald Burrows complained recent amendments to human rights law were not in effect yet.

"One wonders what the hold-up is,'' he said.