A ceasefire of sorts has been declared between Government and the Bermuda Industrial Union in the dispute over the termination of Pro-Active Management Systems' contract to build the new senior secondary school.

While nothing is set in stone and the possibility remains that the project could be further delayed by litigation, Government has also reached an agreement to allow Pro-Active "unimpeded access" to the site to conduct its own assessment.

At a joint press conference yesterday, acting Premier Paula Cox and BIU president Derrick Burgess said that the union leadership had backed away from its threat to take out an injunction to prevent Government going ahead with the project.

"The critical issue is that the BIU leadership was available, amenable, willing and concerned to meet as quickly as possible early this morning to work towards a workable solution," Ms Cox said reading what was presented as a joint press release.

"They recognise as do we, that it is in the national interest to work towards a constructive, feasible solution."

She said there had been a "meeting of the minds" and the parties understood that dialogue was preferable to litigation.

"No one is the winner in that scenario. What is uppermost in all of our minds and consciousness is to get the second senior school completed as expeditiously as possible.

"We want to see the local labour force employed and to maximise the use of our available pool of talent and to see a genuine coalition of Bermudians working towards that goal. We are committed to this end in view."

Union Assets Holdings, which provided the completion bond for the project and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BIU, had threatened an injunction unless it received some assurances from Government that it would not engage another contractor or continue the project in any other way, until several issues were resolved.

Those issues included severance pay for the former Pro-Active workers and the resolution of pending arbitration between the contractor and Government.

UAH was also concerned that Government had gone ahead with plans to conduct an independent assessment of the project without their input ? a decision which the company says ignored their rights as the project's surety.

Yesterday Ms Cox said that the issue of the assessment team had been resolved and that Pro-Active would be conducting its own assessment.

"I think both parties, in terms of justice and fairness and equity will feel more confident" having their own representatives conduct an assessment, given the possibility of litigation, she said.

Pro-Active's assessment team will start work next week and the job should take about two weeks, Ms Cox said.

Mr. Burgess would not say what concessions Government had made to convince them to back down.

Ms Cox was equally vague.

"We recognise that there are still some outstanding issues and it would be an imprudent Government and an imprudent union" to air those issues in the media," she said.

And she cautioned that the d?tente did not mean that arbitration or litigation will not proceed.

Asked whether Government was still confident that the project will be completed within the revised project budget ($81 million) given the potential for costly litigation, Works Minister Mr. DeVent said: "Every effort will be made to stay within that budget."

Mr. DeVent also reported that Pro-Active had been given back some of its equipment that was being used on the site.

"We are still in talks. That which we deem necessary to complete the job will probably stay on the site," he said.

Pro-Active has said in recent weeks that it would demand some compensation for the use of its equipment.

Ms Cox allayed fears held by the union about the role of Somers Construction in the project.

She stressed that Somers will not be the general contractor going forward, but that Government will hire and oversee the project itself.

"The role of Somers, if any, will be a narrower role," Ms Cox said.

The BIU and many of the former Pro-Active workers had expressed concern that their interests would be adversely affected with the involvement of Somers, a non-unionised shop with a less than stellar history when it came to labour relations.

Pro-Active is claiming wrongful termination of the contract and filed an arbitration writ on Thursday.

A Pro-Active spokesperson said that a court hearing had been scheduled for yesterday afternoon, and that the company had intended to ask for an order stopping any work until the company could conduct an assessment of the site.

But the two parties reached that agreement outside of court with Government stating that Pro-Active would have "unimpeded access" to the site for its assessment, the spokesman said.The contractor has engaged a firm from Atlanta, in the United States, to carry out the assessment.