picture of him strolling along a steel beam 50 feet in the air appeared in The Royal Gazette .

Sean Chasty, whose firm is sub-contracted to main developer BCM McAlpine on the massive Centre Re development off Hamilton's Pitts Bay Road, was snapped on Friday by photographer David Skinner.

But furious building site bosses came down like a ton of bricks and suspended Mr. Chasty for half a day for failing to follow safety procedures after the picture appeared in Saturday's Royal Gazette .

A rueful Mr. Chasty, 32, who works for Number One Construction, said: "I lost half a day because of it.

"It was a really good picture -- but I suppose you're not really supposed to walk along the top of the beams.

"I saw this rain coming. The beam was pretty wide so I walked across it.

"If they say I did something wrong, I did something wrong. In view of the reaction, I won't be doing it again.'' Brian Rawlings of BCM McAlpine said the photograph was very dramatic, but added the rules were clear -- workers on steel frames should either wear a safety harness or sit astride the `I' shaped beam and shuffle along the bottom crosspiece.

Mr. Rawlings added that Mr. Chasty had been warned about the same practice on two occasions.

He said: "Hopefully he's learned his lesson -- he is a good worker, but we can't have breaches of safety procedure.

"There have been no serious accidents on that site and we are aiming to keep it that way.'' The Pearman Watlington Waterfront project includes a new home for insurance giants Centre Re.

The steel-framed structure, where Mr. Chasty is currently working, covers 120,000 square feet and is using 100 tons of metal a week.

Government health and safety inspector Harry Powell also hit the roof after seeing the photo and went round to the site yesterday to register his disapproval.