time will dominate proceedings in the House of Assembly today.

The Employment 2000 Act has cross-party support in principle, but the United Bermuda Party will want to closely examine the fine print.

The legislation gives workers a statutory right to two weeks' holiday a year; a written contract after one week; a 40-hour week; time and a half after 40 hours; and paid public holidays.

MPs are expected to pass the Supreme Court Amendment Rules 2000 to provide for more judges.

Government will also disclose details of supplementary spending, but the items are not debatable.

But Controversial plans to amend the Constitution and the Green Paper on long-term residents have been held over.

Government Whip Ottiwell Simmons said he expected considerable debate over the Employment 2000 Act because it was so significant, but did not expect a repeat of last week's marathon session which ended at 3.20 a.m. on Saturday.

He said: "There's a chance it will receive a fair amount of debate, so the House may be slightly extended, but I don't anticipate it will be as late as last week. I am told by the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs (Paula Cox) that there has been widespread consultation with employers and the unions and there seems to be general approval.'' Opposition Whip Cole Simons said: "There will be some discussion, but we support it in principle.

"There are some issues that are important for employees and employers that have to be omitted and some things that have to be fine tuned.''