international restructuring of the giant mutual fund company, The Royal Gazette has learned.

It is understood that mostly Bermudians will be affected by the lay-offs to occur in the fund-accounting department, which is to be transferred to Fidelity's UK offices.

Fidelity International president, Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul, said he could not comment until after a meeting planned for Monday to inform staff.

Sources said the redundancies would take place over the next six to nine months.

Fidelity International, which is based locally in Pembroke Hall on East Broadway, currently has 65 staff. It is one of the largest exempted companies which have a physical presence in Bermuda.

SAL Limited president Mr. John Berg yesterday said he had been forced to slash the work-weeks of about 20 employees.

He said he had periodically been reducing workers' hours for two years now -- every time the industry took a turn for the worse.

And when construction started to pick up, the workers would be put back on full pay.

Explaining the latest round of cuts, from work-weeks of five days to four days, he said: "There is a big slump out there. Eighty percent of our sales are to the construction industry and it is bad right now. There is just no work going on.'' Mr. Berg said SAL had cut its staff by 25 percent since the recession hit, by way of attrition and laying off.

He did not think the industry would get any worse, but if it did he might have to lay off more workers.