Opposition labour spokeswoman Patricia Gordon-Pamplin condemned union leader Derrick Burgess for encouraging law-breaking.

She said the Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) leader was setting the wrong example to children by saying bad laws were made to be broken after Tuesday's illegal sympathy strike.

The stoppage included workers in essential services such as ferries, docks and telephones. Workers walked out in support of BIU colleagues fighting for recognition at BAS-Serco.

Mr. Burgess told yesterday's The Royal Gazette on said: "When Rosa Parks sat at the front of the bus it was an illegal action. Sometimes you have to break a bad law in order to make a good one."

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin said: "We can't have anarchy in our society. If the law is unacceptable you don't just act like you are living in the wild, wild west and go and break the law.

"As politicians we don't have the luxury of being irresponsible and disrespecting law and order."

She said the union should have given warning of the strike and she said Mr. Burgess, who sits as a Government MP, should use his place in parliament to change laws if he was unhappy with them.

Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin also questioned if Mr. Burgess was playing a political game after he lavished praise on the Premier and Labour Minister Terry Lister for intervening in the dispute. She said: "If the Premier is so wonderful why wasn't she so wonderful before these guys walked out?"

On Tuesday during the height of the strike BAS-Serco filed another writ naming six men, believed to be the striking firefighters at the heart of the dispute, plus the BIU.

Yesterday, company lawyer Alan Dunch referred all questions to BAS/Serco contracts manager Richard Savard who could not be reached for comment.

Also yesterday, a former employee accused the company of intimidation. Ex-firefighter Will Slayton left BAS-Serco in April last year, after seven years in the job, in disgust over the way overtime was being handled.

He said three months into the job he realised he wasn't being compensated for nights.

"We accepted their explanation that they had missed it, they didn't catch it. But Serco is a world-wide company and I found that hard to believe." He said the company made adjustments with time being given in lieu but workers found they weren't being given time and a half for overtime.

"The current contract ran out in 2000, prior to that we were told `don't worry about it, we will renegotiate, we'll make sure there's back pay for anything that's negotiated'.

"Once they got the point that we weren't going to stop asking them to re-negotiate they came out with what they called an employee handbook which was basically dictating the renegotiations to the employees. It was basically take it or leave it.

"I left shortly after."

Mr. Slayton said two unionised men who were trained to ready them for promotions were then blocked.

He said: "Myself and another fire officer left around the same time in April. To this day neither one of these guys have been promoted." New standards were then brought it but the men weren't given further training. Instead other men were sent away for training, said Mr. Slayton, who took time off from his painting and maintenance business to support Tuesday's picket.

Instead the union men were paid a little bit extra to fill in while their colleagues jumped the career ladder.

Mr. Slayton said the same two men were victimised when they couldn't get in to the premises because the officer who had the key was late.

"They have some managers over there who lie. Bold face lies, not just a little lie."

He said one manager would tell the trainees they were all going to be fired the next day.

"It was my job to take them in the classroom and train them. They wouldn't pay attention or learn, they kept failing their tests. How are you expected to succeed when every day they are telling you that you are going to be fired?"