Government workers last night urged the Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) to take a tougher stance on Government offering personal contracts to employees.

At a members' meeting in Hamilton, some workers said they believed the Civil Service was violating their collective bargaining agreements by even suggesting employees sign individual contracts.

And they agreed a motion that at the next renewal of the Government workers' collective agreement, in September this year, that it would be stated that the BPSU would not accept personal contracts for its members, unless the workers were exempt, such as non-Bermudians.

The meeting heard last night that the Civil Service had so far offered four union workers personal contracts.

But members asked the union what they should do if they were asked to sign personal contracts with the offer of a new job, or contract renewal. One woman said: "We have a contract called a collective bargaining agreement. It has not expired so why would Government come to me or anyone else and say it wants them to sign a personal contract?

"They should come back to the union when the collective bargaining agreement is up for renewal. Of course, a lawyer would say there is nothing wrong with it, but in members' terms there is something wrong with it.

"If the executive and the members are going to stand by and allow this to happen then we deserve everything we get. You don't see this happening in other unions. Are we going to put our foot down and say to Government that we are not going to accept that. We either bargain through our collective bargaining agreement, or we don't bargain at all."

General Secretary of the union Ed Ball Jr. told the 80 or so members at the meeting that the personal contracts the union had seen so far had not gone outside of the collective agreement.

He said the pay, vacation, benefits and hours were identical to the collective agreement, apart from one clause.

Mr. Ball said Government was so concerned about losing workers to the private sector, it had added a clause in the personal contracts stipulating that employees who signed must stay for at least five years. In return, the workers would be considered for the Civil Service's succession plan. And he said the personal contracts that had come into being were the result of new appointments.

Mr. Ball said: "We have not seen anything that has broken the spirit of the collective agreement."

And facing criticism from some members that the union was not taking a hard enough stance, he added: "All these notions that the union is not doing anything is not correct. We said `no way' to different terms."

He said the union had held meetings with its members on personal contracts, and repeatedly urged members not to sign before showing the contract to the union. He said: "First and foremost, get the document and don't sign anything. Let us see what you are signing. Once you have signed there is nothing we can do."

Mr. Ball said the union had spent a fortune hiring lawyers to look over the personal contracts, as well as other controversial issues. The General Secretary said he never would have thought that a Labour Government would have forced so many issues on the workforce.

He said: "We have spent a lot of money this year on legal fees. We have never done that."

But he said after the first personal contracts were presented, he went to the Civil Service and asked them to abide by the collective agreement and he was given an undertaking that that would happen.

President of the BPSU Nigel Pemberton said the executive was only 20 days old and so wanted to hear all opinions from the members. He urged members to support meetings and assured everyone that the union had not "sold out" on anything.

He said: "We want your direction."

The Royal Gazette, who had been invited to attend the meeting by the executive, was then asked to leave after members said they were uncomfortable with a reporter being present.