A WOMAN who worked on the construction site of the new Berkeley school believes she was fired on the grounds of her gender.

Nichole Simmons said she had been told by the acting foreman of the project's general contractor Pro-Active Management Systems Ltd., that construction was "a man's world".

And that was just one of a number of serious problems at the site, according to 32-year-old mother-of-one Ms Simmons and another former Pro-Active employee who spoke to the Mid-Ocean News about the project to build the $68-million school.

In particular they questioned the provision for training Bermudians which was built into the contract.

Shadow Works & Engineering Minister Erwin Adderley has said $5 million in the contract was earmarked for training value.

But Works & Engineering Minister Alex Scott said yesterday that no figure had been attached to the commitment to train Bermudians and said the $5 million was "a figure being bandied about by the Opposition".

If $5 million had been set aside for training, it would have allowed a budget of $25,000 per person for 200 workers - but our sources said they had not been able to get training when they requested it.

Both put their name down for courses when training had been offered to them while they were working on the school project.

But both said they had consequently received no training and, in fact, both were dismissed shortly afterwards.

Ms Simmons and her former co-worker - both of whom have worked in construction for more than a decade - said Berkeley was the worst-run project they had ever been involved with.

Ms Simmons said: "They (Pro-Active) asked if anyone wanted training and I put my name down for masonry.

"I never got any training. They ended up letting me go. I went in to complain about some of the guys being disrespectful to me and Stephen Ebbin, who was the acting foreman, told me construction was a man's world. He said I would have to accept what went down and deal with it.

"Then he said, 'I don't have to listen to you, you're a woman'. I felt there was a lot of discrimination against me.

"First they told me I was being laid off and three months later Winters Burgess (construction manager for the site) told me: 'I meant to tell you that you'd been fired'."

Ms Simmons, who now works for FedEx, said Mr. Burgess had not given a reason for her dismissal and she suspected the reason was that she was female.

"I was the only woman on the site and I worked harder than a lot of the men," she said.

Asked if she had approached a lawyer to sue her ex-employer over her claim of discrimination, Ms Simmons said: "I thought about it and maybe I should have done, but in the end I just left it alone.

"My only concern was getting another pay cheque. I have a 14-year-old son and I have to think of him."

Asked for her impression of how work at the site was going, Ms Simmons said: "I have been working in construction, on and off, for ten years and I can tell you this project is disorganised.

"I think the management need schooling - they don't know what they're doing."

Her former co-employee, a carpenter, worked on the Berkeley site for 16 months. He declined to be named.

He spoke of a similar experience to Ms Simmons after he signed up for training.

"They asked us if anyone wanted to get on a course at Bermuda College," he said. "There was a group of about 15 of us who put our names down. I never heard anything back. I don't know of them training anybody."

He referred to Auditor General Larry Dennis' so-far unsuccessful efforts to find a receipt proving that Pro-Active had paid $700,000 for a performance bond, a kind of insurance policy for the project.

The Government reimbursed the contractor with $700,000 of taxpayers' money, but the Auditor has yet to be provided with proof that Pro-Active actually paid for the bond.

The carpenter said: "People are talking so much about that $700,000, but what about the $5 million Pro-Active were supposedly given to train Bermudians? That's a much bigger issue. Where's that gone? Whose pocket has that gone into?"

A third source, who is still working on the new school but withheld his name, also said training, even informal on-site training, had been hard to come by.

"I've just had to look at what the other carpenters do and pick up what I can," he said.

"It depends how badly you want it. I basically had to lose an arm and a leg to get the help I got. It was more a case of me having to prove to the bosses that I could do the job that getting help in learning it.

"To get the training is not easy with the people that are up there."

Works & Engineering Minister Scott said he knew nothing of our sources' cases, but he said training was taking place. And he disputed the notion that $5 million had been allocated for training.

"I have heard that training is indeed taking place," said Mr. Scott. "Members of my staff in the Ministry have benefited from their experience on the site and I do know the general contractor has committed to providing training.

"One thing the Government expressed was the desire for the project to include as many Bermudians as possible and I have heard that 96 or as high as 97 per cent of the people working there are Bermudians.

"I know the figure of $5 million has been bandied about by the Opposition, but we never had that enshrined in the contract. What we did have was a training component.

"The general contractor committed himself to that and I have that commitment in writing."

Mr. Adderley said he had been contacted by several people who had worked on the Berkeley site, who had complained that they had been unable to get the expected training.

"Mr. Scott was the one who raised the figure of $5 million for training," said Mr. Adderley.

"What I want to know is how much, if anything, has actually been spent on training. Is it $1 million, $2 million or nothing? I ask the Minister to give an assurance to the public and tell them how much has been spent on training.

"There is no money that I am aware of that has been spent on training. I have brought this matter up on the floor of the House (of Assembly) and people who say they were promised training but never got it keep reminding me to bring it up again."

Pro-Active's cash flow problems entered the news three months ago after workers complained because their pay cheques bounced.

Several sub-contractors who were owed substantial sums for their work at the new school then demanded talks with Minister Scott to demand assurances they would get paid. Two of the sub-contractors, BCM McAlpine and Blumber's Crane and Steel Services, have filed writs against Pro-Active.

Pro-Active's future was hanging in the balance, but an unnamed benefactor stumped up the cash to enable it to pay off some of its debts and allowed it to maintain control of the Second School project.

Our source told us the cash flow problems had been evident to workers long before they had hit the headlines.

"People had a lot of problems cashing their pay cheques and that had been going on for a long time before it became public," he said.

"It only surfaced because we had a lot of sub-contractors on the job, people who were owed big money, $200,000, instead of guys like us who were waiting for $200.

"Then there was a private pension fund they were running. It came out of our pay and I would like to know what has happened to it."

Ms Simmons said she was not convinced that the health insurance plan she paid for out of her wages was valid. Though she had never claimed against it, she knew of fellow workers who had had problems doing so.

When she questioned the management about the insurance policy, she said she was "given the run-around".

Pro-Active president Arthur Ebbin did not respond to a message left at the company's office yesterday.