equality in the work place. The Progressive Labour Party came to power in 1998 promising more racial equality to the people of Bermuda.

Soon after the election, one of the first things the PLP did was give the already formed commission real teeth to tackle racial issues on the Island.

Minister Terry Lister was instrumental in drafting a bill which was passed in January this year which meant that employers with ten employees or more had to register with the commission by February 4, 2000.

This was an initial outline and promised to summarise employment patterns and trends, assess whether businesses followed equal opportunity practices and identify measures which would enhance equal opportunity practices.

At the time Mr. Lister said: "Over time we will be able to analyse the flow of the workplace by race, from entry level into a particular business, progression up through its ranks, and finally departure from the business.

These statistics are vital in achieving our goal -- to ensure the Bermuda work force at all its levels reflects the racial demographics of Bermuda.'' The second phase of the bill, which was to do with the kind of information which would be gathered, was passed in the House of Assembly, but blocked by Senate in March.

This section, entitled `registration and returns', required the detailed record keeping of hiring, firing, promotions, salaries, bonuses and training.

For three years after an employee leaves, details will have to be kept on him or her. All details of the racial mix of applicants will have to be kept for a year.

Business leaders said that the forms were too time consuming to fill out and cried that there had been a lack of consultation with Government.

There were calls for the forms to include genders and whether an employee was Bermudian or not, but questions on these matters were not included in the final draft.

After many more meetings with voters and business leaders small changes were made to the bill, and it was rubber stamped by the Senate on Wednesday.

Now businesses will have to get their skates on and fill out five separate forms by August 31 this year.

Forms will be drafted by CURE, but as of yet no date has been set for this process.

CURE has promised strict secrecy about all forms which are sent in to them and companies failing to fill in forms will face fines of up to $5,000.

At the moment there is no way for the Government to penalise blatantly or not so blatantly racist companies.