Bermuda Cabinet asked to take pay cut

President of the powerful Bermuda Industrial Union, Chris Furbert, has told the island's cabinet ministers to take a symbolic pay cut.



The call was made after the union officially rejected government's pay proposal.



Workers were offered a wage freeze and straight time pay instead of overtime, until the end of this year, as government attempts to save cash in the economic crisis.



The public debt has already ballooned to more than US$1 billion dollars.



But Furbert confirmed that the request had been turned down until ministers, most of whom earn US$168 thousand dollars or more, take a cut themselves.