Government should be using unionised construction workers on its capital projects, according to union President Chris Furbert.

Mr. Furbert, who has been President of the Bermuda Industrial Union for the past four years, was the keynote speaker at yesterday's annual general meeting.

He said he would be writing a letter to Government urging them to use unionised workers on their projects, noting that the economy was hurting all workers but particularly non-union workers as they had no one looking out for their interests.

Capital projects fall under Minister of Works and Engineering Derrick Burgess, who ran the BIU for four years prior to Mr. Furbert's term.

During his speech he also thanked Government for working with the union, in particular he was grateful it had waived payroll tax for hotel workers.

The tax break meant unionised workers were not penalised for agreeing to a wage freeze 15 months ago. The agreement expires in June; so far no pledge has been made to extend it.

Mr. Furbert said the union has been working hard for its members and maintaining jobs was its focus, but that the current economic climate had to be taken into account.

"There are those that say Ottie would never have accepted a wage freeze," he said referring to Ottiwell Simmons, who was union leader from 1974 until 1996.

"What I can say is during previous administrations when there were issues they took it before the membership and that is no different than what is being done now. We must analyse every situation, talk with our membership and then one must look at all the factors."

And he said each company would be treated individually and there was no one size fits all answer. And he said companies that felt their employees were abusing sick leave should file quarterly reports on sick leave and the union will examine them.

Minister of Labour David Burch also spoke at the conference and listed off the good work the Government has done including free day care for those earning less than $70,000 a year, free public transport for schoolchildren and geared-to-income rent at Bermuda Housing Corporation properties.

And he said his Ministry would continue holding public meetings on how workers can access help and improve their earning potential in the current recession.

He added: "When these people tell you that the Government is wasting taxpayers' money, if the previous Government had spent money on the people, on families as it should have done then this Government would not have to be playing catch up."