general overhaul of the Public Service Commission Regulations 1968 is "long overdue,'' the chairman of the PSC said.

Mr. Leopold Mills, the Cabinet Secretary, said there was a perceived conflict in the present system, under which the Public Service Commission rules on recommended dismissals.

"At the present time, the PSC is the body which both appoints, and, I suppose dis-appoints people,'' Mr. Mills told The Royal Gazette . "It has been felt that it might be more desirable to have the PSC function more as a court of appeal by investing the Secretary of the Cabinet with the power to dismiss.'' Mrs. Jeannette Cannonier, chairman of the PSC, said short of a petition to the Governor, there was no appeal avenue for a public servant dismissed by the PSC.

And all the Governor could do was send the matter back to the PSC for another look. The public servant would be appealing to the same body that made the original ruling.

If the Government employee felt the PSC erred in law, an appeal to the courts under the Administration of Justice Prerogative Rights Act was another option.

Mrs. Elmina Verlice Darrell recently followed that route to the Court of Appeal and lost.

If the employee felt the PSC erred on the facts, a suit for wrongful dismissal was possible. But success there would bring payment of damages, not reinstatement.

Mrs. Cannonier agreed that a change was needed. "I feel that it would be better to have another party,'' make dismissals in the first instance, whether it was the Secretary to the Cabinet or a body he appointed, she said.

That would leave the PSC "free to deal with appeals''.

Discipline short of dismissals that were delegated to a department head could be appealed to the PSC. But dismissals, which had to be handled by the PSC in the first instance, "do not have the right of appeal,'' she said.

Several changes were needed to the Public Service Commission Regulations "as a matter of priority,'' she said.

For instance, while there is now legislation to allow certain non-Bermudian spouses of Bermudians to compete for jobs on the same footing as Bermudians, there was no such provision in the regulations.

"The Public Service Commission Regulations are long overdue for revision,'' Mrs. Cannonier said. "It has been talked about for some time.''