As far as I can see you're not testing the real filename: put it into quotes and use the full name:

if (-z "BADSYMS.OUT") {
    system("rm BADSYMS.OUT");
} 
else {
    print "Bad symbols...";
}
[download]

Update: Too slow once again, and tomhukins used strict and unlink plus error checking which I should have used, too. Shame on me :)

Regards...	Stefan
you begin bashing the string with a +42 regexp of confusion