Pensions will go up this year to the delight of beneficiaries and to the consternation of the work force following the approval of the Contributory Pensions Order 1995 by the House of Assembly yesterday.

The Government's Green Paper on a National Pension Scheme for Bermuda was also presented yesterday.

According to Finance Minister the Hon. Dr. David Saul , benefits would be adjusted to the rate of inflation. They would go up by 2.2 percent while contributions would increase by 3.6 percent.

Opposition House Leader Mr. Reginald Burrows said workers were concerned that the raising of their contributions would cause financial hardship in the short term.

Dr. Saul replied that the dilemma of pensions was that to raise benefits, contributions also had to be increased.

But, he said, it was reasonable to ask the work force to accept the increases adding that Government strove to create a balance between the worker and pensioner.

On the Statistics of Employment Regulations 1995, also approved yesterday, Dr.

Saul announced that information on race was to be compiled as part of the statistics for the first time in order to assess the racial composition of the work force with the aim of eliminating discrimination.

Shadow Minister of Finance Mr. Eugene Cox agreed with the concept which he said "made sense''.

The Municipalities Amendment and Validation Act 1995, also passed yesterday, had been created to modernise the 1923 Act, Dr. Saul said. The new Act would put Hamilton and St. George's on an equal footing. It set out parking regulations, validated land purchases by municipalities and gave them the power to construct buildings. But it also curtailed municipalities' borrowing powers.

Mr. Cox agreed that the latter proposal would prevent municipalities from running up enormous bills. It was a common sense approach, he said.

The Limited Partnership Amendment Act 1995 would free up the movement of the "limited'' or "sleeping partner'' in a business, and would bring Bermuda in line with the rest of the world, Dr. Saul said.

Under the proposed legislation, limited partners would simply have to prove they were members of the International Stock Exchange and provide affidavits of solvency.

The Bermuda Immigration and Protection Amendment Act 1995 also passed through the House yesterday.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman said it had been created to correct an oversight in 1984 which had excluded a clause relating to Irish citizens. Hitherto they had been treated as Commonwealth citizens.

Eight people and their offspring came under the provision and it was important to protect their rights and privileges as Bermudians, Mr. Pearman said, all eight were naturalised.

The amendment also gave the spouses of US pre-Customs clearance officers and spouses of US consulate officials the right to work, exempt from immigration controls.

Mr. Pearman claimed the move was very important for the tourist industry and for Bermuda-US relations.

"We have to look to build bridges with the United States as we look toward the future,'' Mr. Pearman said.

Shadow Labour and Home Affairs Minister Mr. Alex Scott took issue with the proposal. He said that while US immigration officials provided a useful service of benefit to Bermuda, he said consulates were primarily interested in protecting the rights of their own citizens.

On the issue of the Irish, he claimed the Irish had fought their way out of the Commonwealth and that it was not an oversight that they had not been covered by the original act.

"It is a piece of legislative footwork,'' he said. It would be incorrect to include them now if they had been deliberately excluded from the Act, he said.

"Trying to pen the Irish in back now seems a very extraordinary thing to do.'' Bermuda, should not give its rights away, especially if it went Independent.

"We must be very judicious about how we extend rights to others. We will have done it at the expense of Bermudians,'' he said. "Bermudians must come first.. .they do not want to be competing with any one else in this very restricted job market.'' He said the PLP at this time could not support the extension of the Act to cover the Irish and consular spouses. Spouses of pre-Customs officers could be exempt from immigration controls but should be put into special categories so that Bermudians still got first pick of jobs.

"In these hard times we must err on the side of Bermudians,'' he said.

Opposition leader Mr. Frederick Wade concurred with Mr. Scott's comments.

On the topic of Irish citizens, Mr. Wade accused the Government of creating a fiction by maintaining the Irish were in the Commonwealth when they were not.

"They should come in as other countries do and be naturalised in that way,'' he said.

He pointed to the uproar the appointment of the non-Bermudian spouse had caused in Customs.

"We ask Government to stop the matter,'' he said.

Mr. Pearman said the United States had been reducing the size of its Consul General in Bermuda, and there were concerns that if Government did not assist in the area of exemption from work permits, there could be further reductions.

"This type of behaviour on the part of Government is in our view reprehensible,'' Mr. Wade said. "We support the pre-Customs clearance arrangement with the Americans, because it serves to both countries' advantage.'' Spouses of the Customs workers should be able to work in Bermuda, but not on the same footing as Bermudians, he said.

And it would set a bad precedent to extend rights to spouses of workers at the US Consul General. "If we do that, we open the door to other countries to have the same privilege.'' But Mr. Pearman said Mr. Wade's concern was not valid, because other countries like Germany or Switzerland would never be providing Customs pre-clearance in Bermuda for Bermudians flying to those countries.

The Opposition was trying to "make some fairly cheap political points,'' he said.

The bill passed over the objections of the PLP.

Mr. Pearman also disclosed that there will be sharp increases in fines for hiring illegal workers.

The current maximum fine of $5,000 for companies that use non-Bermudian workers who do not have work permits will look like "a drop in the bucket,'' he said.

He also disclosed that 19 illegal worker cases were "pending with authorities at this time to bring forward to the courts.'' "We're determined to stamp this illegal practice out.'' The Minister made his comments during a wide-ranging Motion to Adjourn, after outspoken Government backbencher Mrs. Grace Bell renewed her fight against companies hiring illegal workers.

Mrs. Bell said some people thought she had been "silenced'' on the issue after The Royal Gazette reported that she employed a non-Bermudian worker without a valid permit through her cleaning company.

"I will not be told to be quiet,'' said Mrs. Bell, who has argued there is no comparison between her "technical'' breach and problems she has highlighted.

Government recently introduced a three-week stay policy for visitors after Mrs. Bell complained that visitors were illegally taking jobs under the three-month stay policy that was in place previously. Yesterday, she said she understood illegal workers continued to arrive under the three-week policy.

And she charged that "certain catering firms'' were hiring Filipinos and other live-in help to assist with functions, in violation of Bermuda's labour laws.

Mr. Pearman said a key point that Mrs. Bell highlighted was that it was Bermudians who were encouraging illegal workers. "It's not non-Bermudians who come in and create employment for other non-Bermudians,'' he said.

"It is Bermudians who are doing it, and that is fundamentally wrong. It should cease.'' The hiring of illegal workers depressed wage levels for all Bermudians, Mr.

Pearman said. "When you employ people who are desperate to work, or who have no right to work, they'll work for pennies.'' Mrs. Bell complimented the Education Ministry for its recent advertisement aimed at finding Bermudians to do custodial work in the Island's schools.

"That is going to take care of a lot of people in this Country,'' she said.

She named ACE Cleaning and Landscaping Ltd., which she noted was recently fined in Magistrates' Court for hiring illegal workers, as a firm that had been "doing some of the work in Government schools.'' Progressive Labour Party MP Mr. Ottiwell Simmons said Mrs. Bell's repeated complaints about illegal workers demonstrated "a Government that doesn't listen.'' If a United Bermuda Party MP could not get the ear of Government, imagine the frustrations of non-UBP members, he said.

The PLP's Mr. Walter Lister said it was "pointless'' for Mrs. Bell to complain about inaction by a Government she supported.

It might be "ideal to grab headlines,'' but the public wanted action, Mr.

Lister said.