Government came under fire yesterday for bringing no business to Senate.

The meeting broke up after just 55 minutes after the motion to adjourn and congratulatory and obituary speeches.

United Bermuda Party Senator Leonard Santucci said: ?We?ve spent more time on congratulatory and obituary commendations and, at the same time, we are finding evidence of strikes and strife in the community.

?I should not be surprised there is not much to debate because this Government believes it should be paid more while they work less.

?They appear to be a holiday-mode government filled with a holiday mood, some of whom feel they should not be asked to remove their shoes while aeroplane bound.

?We will recess and enjoy a few more days holiday when there is unprecedented industrial strife taking place in our community, which is a greater shame considering there is a Labour government.

?I am of the opinion that when they became Government they forgot from whence they came. I can remember the leader of the BIU accusing the previous Premier of not having much time for him.?

He accused the PLP of being a ?wolf in sheep?s clothing? ? promising one thing and doing another.

?This is a Labour government that prostitutes the principles of unionism. They won?t even agree with the terms of arbitration (in the teachers? strike).?

The PLP had accused the UBP of leading Bermudians back to Egypt and the plantation but ?you?ve locked the plantation gate?.

Government Sen. Walter Roban said he was surprised by Sen. Santucci?s language but ?we expect this from the Opposition?.

It was ?unfortunate? and ?regretful? that some schools were closed but it was always Government?s intention to give schools and teachers the best, he said.

?We are listening to the concerns of parents, as we always do, and we will use that in future discussions with the teachers,? he said.

When ?best interest? bargaining was introduced in 2003, objective benchmarks were to be established to ?legitimise? the process, he said.

?Part of this is to look at comparable models to come to some sort of agreement with. As such, the Ministry sought to legitimise the issue by referring to other groups within the civil service who work within the school system.?

He said education officers worked an average of 260 days a year, whereas teachers only worked for 200 days a year.

Independent Sen. Walwyn Hughes said Government was in a tricky position and he sympathised with them for looking at how many hours teachers worked. But just because they looked at hours didn?t mean teachers were not being treated as professionals.

?That doesn?t demean the fact that they are doing a professional job. I can see what the Minister is trying to do,? he said.

PLP Sen. Raymond Tannock said no one could argue that teachers were doing a good job.

?Yes, we are a Labour government. Does that mean we must agree with everything put before us?? he asked.

?If we did that, the Opposition would come here singing another tune. But we are not that way. We recognise the professionalism of the teachers, but we must be cognisant that we recognise that we represent not just labour, but Bermuda as a whole.

?If we said we are going to agree to everything that is asked of every worker in Bermuda, we would have to come back asking for an enormous amount of money.?

Opposition Senate leader Kim Swan said the people were ?mathematically cheated? at the last election because although the PLP squeezed in with 51 percent of the votes, it took 60 percent of the seats.

?What has transpired in the months since the election is tantamount to the people being absolutely betrayed,? he said.

?Government has taken that electoral windfall like they have taken every other financial windfall and thrown it away.?

He said he hoped Government would abide by the arbitration ruling over St. George?s Preparatory School, but he said the PLP was ?masquerading? as a Labour government because it didn?t care.

?This Government is causing people to be frustrated.

?With the gap that has grown between the haves and the have nots, we can?t afford to allow the frustration to be perpetuated by an uncaring Government because the consequences could be dire.?

Teachers, taxi drivers and prison officers who thought they were voting for a Labour government were ?lied to?, he said.

The PLP had resorted to ?race baiting? at the last election by saying if electors did not vote for their candidates they would be ?going back to Egypt. The reality is that this Government doesn?t walk the talk.?

Accusing the current leadership of betraying the principles of former PLP and trade union leaders such as Frederick Wade, Dame Lois Browne-Evans and Ottiwell Simmons, he attacked them for their ?bourgeois ?I?ve arrived? mentality. Get back in the trenches and see what the people need. This Government needs a reality check?.

PLP Sen. Neville Darrell accused the Opposition of ?spouting misinformation? and said he heard the same speech about Government doing nothing for the people he had heard on the talk shows for the past six months.

?We are a Labour government but that doesn?t mean we have to give everything away,? he said.

Government Sen. Larry Mussenden said he had never heard Sen. Swan talk about the haves and have nots before.

?It is this Premier and this Government that has talked about closing the gap between the haves and the have nots.

?The haves will continue to have and it is the have nots who have to be put in a position to be brought along,? he said.

?We have opened up the tendering process and contracts and are spreading the business along. We have increased spending per student well above what the UBP did.?

It was wrong to say Government had rejected the arbitration award in the teachers? dispute. He said the arbitration allowed the Ministry of Education to work out a deal, which the parties now could not agree upon.

Now that the dispute had been referred to arbitration, it was time for teachers to end the industrial action, he said.

?It is my hope we will get on with the business of educating our children. Teachers calling in sick should be returning to the classroom.

?Next month there will be exams. Are students to be denied the right to take exams?

Denied the right to move to next year? Denied the right to take the Terra Nova tests? That can?t be right.

?We appeal to the Bermuda Union of Teachers to do their best to encourage members to go back in the classroom and finish the year and let arbitration do its work.?