The Bermuda Broadcasting Corporation staff and management stand-off deepened last night with both sides at an impasse.

Unable to come to an agreement, the station remained off air for a second night, leaving ZBM and ZFB TV viewers and radio listeners devoid of local programming or news.

Instead, the station transmitted rolling British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) global news coverage.

According to staff, management blocked access to the building in Devonshire yesterday. That did not stop anchorman Gary Moreno and a camera crew however, from broadcasting a special bulletin updating the public on the stand-off.

Mr. Moreno told viewers: "Members of staff continue to be off the job.

"They are not on strike or taking sit-out activity but have been told they can't enter the building. They are awaiting a meeting with Fernance Perry."

Yesterday however, it was understood BBC board chairman Mr. Perry was stipulating there would be no meeting with employees or the Bermuda Industrial Union until 3.30 p.m. on Monday.

Angry staff and union representatives asked Labour Minister David Burch to intervene to try to get Mr. Perry to break the deadlock with an earlier meeting.

At the time of going to press last night, there appeared to have been no progress in this regard. "He is refusing to budge," said one employee, who spoke to The Royal Gazette on condition of anonymity.

The staff member described the mood among his colleagues as "very militant". "Outrage doesn't serve it justice," he said. "They feel completely and utterly disrespected."

The station blackout began at around 5 p.m. on Thursday when staff walked off the job in protest at three employees a receptionist, messenger and an assistant to programme manager Darlene Ming, being laid off for four months on just a day's notice.

A few minutes later, board chairman Fernance Perry sent news editor Jannell Ford outside with a message stating: "Go home and get off my property."

The row is not just over the way in which the three employees are being treated, however. It is also the culmination of a failure by management to pay staff the second part of their Arbitration Award, amounting to thousands of dollars.

Up to 40 unionised employees met with BIU representatives yesterday morning.

The anonymous employee said members had asked Mr. Perry for a meeting yesterday but that he had refused.

"He is not budging, but we are also not budging," he said. "The staff are very united, very together. We are demanding he reinstate the three women being laid-off. We will not go back to work until he agrees to reinstate them, and also that we have an agreement as to when we will get our back pay."

He added: "Mr. Perry said we could go back to work and all would be forgiven, and that we would have a meeting on Monday, but he has not addressed our main concern over these three employees. He refused to reinstate them.

"It's a stand-off and the ball is really in his court. Nobody is going back to work until he agrees to our demands."

BIU president Chris Furbert told The Royal Gazette that Mr. Perry had defied a union and management agreement that anyone laid-off should have four weeks' notice or receive four weeks' pay in lieu of notice.

"They (management) gave them just one day's notice, so they have completely violated the agreement between us and them," he said.

Mr. Furbert said that only the first of four pay awards had been made since last year's Arbitration Award. The second should have been made by March.

"Staff have not had a pay increase for three years, 2004 to 2006, and so the back pay award is some $240,000, made in $60,000 instalments," said Mr. Furbert. "The mood at the moment is very sombre. The staff are very disappointed at Mr. Perry's decision not to meet with them or the union until Monday.

"They are upset about how their coworkers have been treated. Mr. Perry did not even give these employees four weeks' notice or four weeks' pay in lieu. "I think it is totally inhumane, to give someone one day's notice particularly in this economic climate."

Mr. Perry did not return The Royal Gazette's request for comment yesterday.

But Rick Richardson of BBC said: "I do know that Mr. Perry had a good meeting with the union this week. He spoke about lay-offs and the retroactive pay. Both sides said there would be mutual cooperation.

"I think the union was looking for further consultation rather than quick action. Mr. Perry objected to redundancies proposed by Bill Craig (former BBC CEO and president). He has tried to keep everyone employed thus the lay-off route."