Wednesday's editorial incorrectly stated that Bermuda Public Service Association general secretary Edward Ball was referring to the hotel industry when he was discussing laziness among workers. Mr. Ball was referring to workers in all fields.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the debate about the supposed idleness of Bermudians is its source.

It would be no surprise to hear company owners decry the lack of effort of their own employees or the slackness of others, but the criticism is coming from a union -- the Bermuda Public Service Association.

Naturally BPSA general secretary Ed Ball was not picking on his own members, but on staff in the hotel industry. But it is interesting that Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess did not deny there were lazy hotel workers, although he blamed the fact on the managers.

Like anywhere else, there are hard working Bermudians and there are lazy Bermudians.

The issue for Bermuda is one of productivity -- do Bermuda workers process documents, make beds, mix drinks, sell T-shirts or lay concrete block more quickly and efficiently than the Island's competitors? In the 1970s, when the British economy was lagging behind other developed nations, there was a good deal of talk about the British work ethic or the lack thereof. Stories abounded about workers sleeping when they were supposed to be working and there were numerous comparisons of how many people and how many days it took to build a Japanese car compared to a British one.

There are few stories of that kind now. Britain has become a more enterprise-oriented society in which hard work is more likely to be rewarded, a change from the union and class-bound society of 20 years ago.

Bermuda in many ways has always had an enterprising society, typified today by the large numbers of small businesses around the Island.

The problem is that there is no real way of pinning down the productivity of people in Bermuda. Anecdotes abound, but real, hard facts are rare.

Mr. Burgess is not entirely wrong in saying that management should take some of the blame for sloppy or lazy work. Managers need to inspire their staffs to work better -- and to show how a successful business can help the employee enjoy a better life.

But employees should also take pride in their work. And in the hotel industry in particular, improved productivity is a matter not of pride, but of survival. Without it, there will be no jobs because tourism will be dead.

Part of the reason that Britain's economy became more efficient and productive was because high unemployment made job security important.

Part of the cause of the unemployment was the decision by the Government to let inefficient and uncompetitive industries die, rather than propping them up to preserve jobs.

Apart from a few years in the early 1990s, Bermuda has enjoyed full employment for decades, fuelling the complacency which the BPSA's Mr. Ball described.

Rather than go through the kind of pain which Britain, the US and other economies have endured in order to regain their competitive edges, managers and employees would do better to recognise that there is a germ of truth in the words of Mr. Ball and others and to do something about it now.