MINISTER OF LABOUR AND THE CIVIL SERVICE Rawle Eastmond is back on the job after ten weeks' sick leave.

And he promised Barbadians he would take it easy after a health scare back in December.

Speaking to the MIDWEEK NATION from his Warrens, St Michael office, Eastmond said though his leave officially ended yesterday, he was back on the job for a full four days, starting last Wednesday when he sat in on a meeting with the Barbados Workers' Union and the Barbados Port Authority resulting from a dispute over the sacking of a security guard.

He was on leave from the first session of Parliament after the Christmas recess back on January 16. He returned for yesterday's sitting of the House of Assembly.

"As Minister of Labour, the substantive minister should always show interest in his ministry even when he is off work," said 52-year-old Eastmond, who was first diagnosed as a Type II diabetic back in 1999.

He was admitted to hospital on December 29 for low blood sugar levels after concern was raised when he made two calls to the Starcom Network's radio call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks and seemed incoherent.

It was his secretary, Corlette Garnes, who noticed he looked "different" when he took ill at his office.

"For weeks, she was asking me if everything was all right. I just realised I was working though the night non-stop and had no appetite. I wasn't eating as I should, I wasn't resting as I should so my blood sugar level was low. I used to master a diabetic diet in the daytime but once I was stressed at six or seven o'clock in the evening, I would lapse and sometimes eat things I shouldn't eat.

"When they took me to the hospital and pumped me up with sugar, my blood sugar level was so low, the sugar never went high," he disclosed.

The St James North MP said a minister's work was never done and besides well-wishers, he still had to deal with constituents who wanted his help, even when he was ill.

"I'm learning to pace myself. I'm feeling good but I still need to lose some weight; I still need to lose a further 25 pounds. If I can get down to 200 pounds that would be great."

Eastmond said he was taking much better care of himself now by exercising and eating properly.