Government will not reward companies for non-racist policies, Minister of Development, Opportunity and Government Services Terry Lister said yesterday.

Opposition Senate Leader Maxwell Burgess this week called for payroll tax breaks and easing of work permit restrictions for companies found to have a clean bill of health in race relations.

But Mr. Lister yesterday spurned Sen. Burgess' suggestions and said Government was not about to pay anybody for adhering to the new rules.

The Commission for Unity and Racial Equality's (CURE) new laws on race reporting in the workplace were passed in Senate on Wednesday.

As of August 31 this year, all companies with ten employees or more must fill out forms on the racial makeup of their workforce as well as hiring, firing, income, training and promotion practices.

Responding to Sen. Burgess, Mr. Lister said: "Let's put that in plain English. In plain English, that says that I should in essence pay somebody for not being a racist. OK? Think about it.'' Senate unanimously passed the CURE regulations after blocking them in March because it felt there was not enough consultation with the business community.

Sen. Burgess said the listening process had improved the proposals and said he hoped a continuing dialogue would take place or businesses would be forced to leave. The contentious form four, which the business community asked to be dropped for businesses which proved to be racially egalitarian, was kept.

Sen. Burgess said on Wednesday: "Payroll tax could be reduced for good companies and the Government should set up a business awards programme where they get a plaque to say they are a class A company or class B. Work permits could be made easier to get.'' Street Talk; Page 5 Q&A; Business, Page 23 Lister: I won't reward not being a racist Mr. Lister was clearly pleased yesterday that the bill was passed by Senate.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette he said: "We are starting this in a very user-friendly way. It's somewhat disappointing that those who are involved in the process have not embraced it in such a user-friendly way up until now, but I think we can overcome that together.'' Mr. Lister said he guaranteed confidentiality to those filling out the form, stating that it will be covered by the same Secrecy Act as Manpower Surveys and the Human Rights Commission.

And he added that the information gathered in the surveys would be collated and published each year without revealing the identity of individual companies.

He said: "Just as form three shows by race the number of people in each racial mix in different job categories, showing five categories, it then goes on to show those same people according to their salary and the same people according to their benefits.

"We'll have a report that shows that in summarised form for all the 500 registered companies, then we'll have a report that shows that same information in the 15 industrial groupings. That's the extent of the information that will be available.

"But it basically is coming from that source, so at the end of it all the reader would be hard pressed to say this is a report that talks about company A, B, or C.'' Companies failing to fill out forms will be penalised by fines.

Terry Lister