The Island?s leading employers? organisation ? the Bermuda Employers Council ? has teamed up with New York based Cornell University to offer labour relations and human resource certificate programmes in the new year.

The BEC said it was flying in instructors as a way of enabling local residents to bypass air travel and hotel costs in pursuing ILR Labour Relations and Human Resource certificates here in Bermuda. The courses will run from February through June, 2004.

The Human Resource certificate programme includes the fundamentals of HR, employee relations, employee benefits and compensation, selection and staffing, performance appraisals, and effective training and handling of employee complaints.

In the case of the labour relations courses, the first course will be delivered via Cable & Wireless teleconferencing feed from Cornell University.

The labour courses include collective bargaining, contract language, labour negotiations, bargaining skills and strategies, labour management and arbitration strategies.

The BEC said the labour relations courses could be especially beneficial for companies wanting to go familiarise themselves with arbitration procedures that could be used when there were labour issues, and the possibility of strike action.

In a Press statement, BEC training administrator Annwen Stirling said the lecturers that were being brought to the Island had extensive experience in their fields.

The BEC, as a non-profit organisation, said it had kept the course fees for the ILR and HR certificates as low as possible. The courses are open to employees of the BEC?s 400 member companies.