Labour leader and ruling party backbencher Derrick Burgess yesterday advocated changing the law to prohibit age discrimination.

His stance supports proposals by the Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) to provide elderly people with better legal protection.

Bermuda Industrial Union president Mr. Burgess said seniors should have the right to continue working for as long as they were able to.

And he said he was optimistic about relations between the second Progressive Labour Party (PLP) Government and workers.

"Before it was good, but now it will get better," he said.

But he said he was also concerned about the training and retraining of both the employed and unemployed on the Island and claimed that it was never too late for people to learn new skills.

In its election platform the UBP proposed amending the Island's Human Rights legislation to specifically prohibit discrimination on the grounds of age.

Mr. Burgess agreed with that stance last night and said that while people can argue cases in court, specific legal protection was necessary.

"The elderly have such a wealth of experience and they shouldn't retire unless they want to," said Mr. Burgess.

"In 15 to 20 years time the elderly are going to be the largest part of the population and there will not be enough young people to do all the jobs that society needs. They are a valuable part of society with lots to offer.

"As long as they are able and if they prefer to work they should be able to - or if they want to retire and can afford to, then they should."

Mr. Burgess called for Government and Social Partners to join together to develop a programme to introduce training and retraining.

"It's not as simple as it seems, but it can be done," said the labour leader.

"Our concerns are for retraining both the employable and the unemployable people in our community.

"Today there is no job for life and the skills you have today may not be any good tomorrow.

"If you buy a computer that is top of the line today - it is already out of date, and skills to maintain the new technology have to be met."

He said although the BIU had not had any talks with Government over labour issues he was expecting that they would.

"There are issues within the Labour Relations Act that we will be talking about and we are hoping to make it an even playing field," said Mr. Burgess.