wing extremist''.

And he dismissed an attack on him by union leader Derrick Burgess as wrong and a desperate attempt to smear him.

Mr. Dunkley said: "This is a most confused and twisted attempt to attack me and is consistent with Mr. Burgess' misrepresentation of the facts. It's wrong, defamatory, perhaps libelous as well but I'm not going to stoop to his level.'' And the Shadow Home Affairs Minister denied claims by Bermuda Industrial Union president Mr. Burgess that he supported compulsory overtime and had exploited Dunkley's Dairy workers.

Mr. Dunkley said: "I never took sides with the BIU or Stevedoring Services. I have never supported compulsory overtime.

BIU blasts Dunkley But Mr. Burgess said yesterday: "If Mr. Dunkley is referring to my statement then he is evilly misrepresenting my comments.'' He added common sense dictated workers would choose to take care of their families rather than work.

After the ruling, Mr. Burgess called the judgment "the most repressive in the history of workers' rights in Bermuda''.

He added the union would appeal but said he could not guarantee that dock workers would not walk off the job after completing their normal overtime.

Mr. Justice Meerabux found that dockers were under a "contractual duty'' to do a "reasonable'' amount of overtime in relation to contractual work.

Stevedoring Services lawyer Allan Dunch said after the ruling was handed down that the issue was whether the union was in breach of an injunction issued in 1998 prohibiting general overtime bans -- not compulsory overtime.

And he said the ruling meant that the union -- to stay within the law -- could not impose any general overtime bans and that workers had to work their contracted hours, including "such overtime hours as they agree to provide'' in line with individual contracts and the collective agreement with the BIU.

But Mr. Burgess said the ruling did not just affect the dock workers, but employees all over Bermuda.

And he accused Mr. Dunkley, head of Dunkley's Dairies, of making "a habit of misleading the public'', partly because of his own business interests.

"Mr. Dunkley agrees with compulsory overtime because his company made a fortune on the backs of labour, most of whom were guest workers. Mr. Dunkley had these labourers working from sun-up to sundown.'' Mr. Burgess added Mr. Dunkley's silence was "thunderous'' when offshore company chief William Williams called for a civil disobedience campaign to sabotage Commission for Unity and Racial Equality regulations on race reporting in the workplace.