Proposed controversial regulations on race reporting in the workplace are not far-reaching enough, a public meeting heard last night.

A number of people who attended the gathering hosted by the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality (CURE) said employers should be made to give more information on the make-up of their staff, not less.

Minister of development and opportunity Terry Lister chaired the meeting in Sandys, which was the first of a series planned for all of the parishes on the Island designed to give members of the public a chance to voice their opinions on the proposed set of rules for businesses.

Copies of the regulations were handed to the audience and then explained in full by Mr. Lister.

And out of all those who spoke, only one person said she thought the regulations, created by the Government to ensure equal job opportunities for all races, were not the way forward.

Dawn Simmons, from Sandys, which is a mostly black mix parish, said companies, when completing the CURE forms, should be asked to give details on the education and specific training of their staff.

She also said: "I wonder if we could also ask the employer to give information about whether members of staff are male or female, and also, there is no reference in these forms on whether employees are Bermudian or not. It just talks about colour.'' One man said: I have a problem with any employer who says they find these forms complex. Are they retarded or do they have some other problem?'' One member of the public congratulated the Progressive Labour Party for holding the open meeting and discussing the issue of race.

He said the younger generation in Bermuda, both black and white, were more willing to integrate and work together, and it was the older generations who had the problems.

He said: "As far as I'm concerned, for the first time in the history of this country race is being addressed. The fact that nobody ever talked about the race issue before is the reason that we have the race problem today.'' But white Bermudian businesswoman Cindy Taylor, who lives in Sandys, said to unify the country, nobody should be talking about colour.

"There is only one race -- the human race,'' she said.

And she said after the meeting: "I'm for racial unity, but I don't think you can get there by separating the races. It will come naturally from our children. We will have to wait for the next generation.'' Mr. Lister said the regulations had been designed to be simple to make it as easy as possible for companies to complete them.

And he said any companies who did not meet average standards for their particular industry on the mix of staff, would be dealt with by CURE consultants on a one to one basis.

After the meeting the Minister said: "I was hoping we would find out how people in this parish felt and I think we got a good indication of that.

"What I heard tonight was these forms don't go far enough.

"But I really believe that the vast majority of employers are already on board with CURE and the regulations.

"Putting more regulations on the table would be unfair to the majority of companies we believe will work with us. For those companies where there are problems, more questions will be asked.'' GOVERNMENT GVT