AUDITOR General Larry Dennis is to request a meeting with members of the Human Rights Commission to discuss its ruling on a verbal attack made against him by Bermuda Industrial Union leader Derrick Burgess that he labelled "inciteful, racist name-calling".

Mr. Dennis lodged a complaint with the HRC after Mr. Burgess strongly implied the Auditor was a racist following his report on the $70-million project to build a new Berkeley Institute.

The HRC ruled that Mr. Burgess's comments did not breach the Human Rights Act, although it also warned that implying someone was a racist could invite legal action.

Mr. Dennis said yesterday a lawyer had suggested to him that he had a case against Mr. Burgess. But he added that he had no plans at present to pursue legal action.

Yesterday, Mr. Dennis said he thought the comments from the HRC had been "very generic and broad".

He added: "They took two pages to explain why they could not take further action and I thought they would have taken the opportunity to speak out on the issue.

"I intend to contact the Commission so I can sit down with them for 15 minutes. I would like to ask if they have actually sat down and spoken with Mr. Burgess."

In a written statement this week, Mr. Dennis said: "The purpose of my complaint was to obtain public recognition from the HRC that Mr. Burgess's comments were inciteful, racist name-calling and as such, were inappropriate and unacceptable.

"The Human Rights Commission took two pages to explain it does not have the legislated mandate to address my complaint seriously and agonised for some time over how it can best handle it.

"In the second-last paragraph of its statement, the Commission stated that it is inappropriate, unacceptable and possibly unlawful to make racial slurs.

"If one is expected to bridge from this pronouncement that Mr. Burgess' comments were racial slurs and therefore inappropriate and unacceptable, I am pleased with the result. If this connection cannot be made by Bermudians, then I am not pleased."

Following the release of the Berkeley report, BIU president Mr. Burgess suggested that Mr. Dennis "shares the all too common belief that people of African descent are illiterate and chained in darkness".

Mr. Burgess also said Mr. Dennis had only conducted such a thorough investigation of the Berkeley project because general contractor Pro-Active Management Ltd. was a black-owned company.

The HRC statement in response to Mr. Dennis' complaint included the paragraph: "The Dennis/Burgess exchange, while race and work related, did not occur in the workplace. By the same token, the Act's section on harassment in the workplace by way of race, colour, ethnic or national origins does not apply."

It also stated that Mr. Burgess's comments had been "unpleasant", but the HRC said it could not comment on whether they were libellous or defamatory.

The HRC also warned: "It is inappropriate, unacceptable and possibly unlawful to make racial slurs. Furthermore, it is also risky to to publicly label or imply that someone is a racist. To do so may result in legal proceedings in the courts having jurisdiction where one might have to prove that the allegation is, in fact, true."