In a recent paper (13), we introduced the class of strongly jE-reflexive inverse semigroups. This class was shown to coincide with the class of those inverse semigroups which are semilattices of E-unitary inverse semigroups. In particular, therefore, E-unitary inverse semigroups and semilattices of groups are stronglŷ -reflexive, and in fact so are subdirect products of these two types of semigroups. J. Mills (1) considers orthodox semigroups which are subdirect products of an £-unitary regular semigroup and a semilattice of groups, and of course there are strong connections between the two papers.In this communication we wish in part to .specialise Mills' results to inverse semigroups, and in doing so, to consider them in the context of the theory of strongly E-reflexive inverse semigroups. As well, we give yet another characterisation of these semigroups in terms of JS-unitary inverse semigroups, and show that an inverse semigroup which is a semilattice of strongly jE-reflexive inverse semigroups is again strongly E-reflexive.In this section, some results on congruences which will be needed below are collected together.Let S be an inverse semigroup with semilattice of idempotents E. Let a = {(*, y) £ S x S\ex -ey for some e G E}; then a is the minimum group congruence on S (10). Moreover, S is said to be E-unitary if Ea = E. In general, there exists a minimum .E-unitary congruence on S, which we shall denote by K.
Proposition 1. (See 12) #c is the congruence on S generated by a D£%. Let n = {(a, b)G S x S\a'] ea = b~leb for all e £ £ ) ; then ft is the maximum idempotent-separating congruence on S (7). Recall that a congruence v on S is called idempotent-determined (5) if (e, x)Gv and eE.E imply that xGE; as is natural, a homomorphism on S will be called idempotent-determined when the associated congruence on S is so. The minimum semilattice of groups congruence on S will be denoted by £, the minimum semilattice congruence by 17, and the identity congruence by 1.Note that K C 17 C\a and that £ C 17 Ha.