yesterday -- with a focus on the number of foreigners working for each side.

The Opposition's Immigration spokesman, Alex Scott, asked new Minister Maxwell Burgess how many work permits had been issued to Cable and Wireless and TeleBermuda International in the last two years.

The pair are new rivals in the telecommunications industry, after Government introduced competition and ended Cable and Wireless's 107-year-old monopoly.

Mr. Scott also questioned how many foreigners were now working for BTC, whose labour-relations and management practices will be scrutinised by a Board of Inquiry team later this month.

The three-man Board will also investigate a four-day unofficial strike at BTC in March and allegations revealed in The Royal Gazette that 14 white-collar jobs were cut even though original management consultants had not planned redundancies.

Mr. Burgess said ten work permits were issued to Cable and Wireless in the last two years, with six of them still in use.

TBI received 15 work permits during the same time frame, he added, and eight of those were still valid.

And BTC had been handed 24 foreign work permits in the last two years, with 18 still current.

Mr. Scott said: "In view of the recent announcement that TBI will be permitted to be totally owned by outside interests, and in view of the fact that after 100 years Cable and Wireless have recently only had ten non-Bermudians on work permits while TBI have had 15, isn't it a sign that Bermuda is losing out economically and in terms of jobs? "TBI is obviously not working in the best interests of Bermuda. Is that true?'' Mr. Burgess said: "No, that's simply not true. Cable and Wireless have had 100 years in terms of getting Bermudians up to speed in their employment and I can assure the member opposite and the country at large that it's not the Government's intention to give TBI 100 years to get themselves up and running.'' He said TBI currently had 29 staff, with 21 foreigners and eight Bermudians.