Unionised firefighters have bypassed management and gone straight to the Minister for resolution of a dispute over overtime holiday pay and time off.

And some 45 firefighters marched to the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs yesterday and handed the Minister, the Hon. John Irving Pearman, a letter outlining their concerns. Mr. Pearman also met with Chief Fire Officer Mr.

Reginald Rawlins and has passed the matter on to labour relations officer Mr.

Edwin Wilson.

Sources say morale is so low at the Bermuda Fire Service that they were unable to get 21 willing firefighters to march in Monday's Queen's Birthday festivities on Front Street. However, Mr. Rawlins brushed aside suggestions of low morale among the firefighters.

"We have not participated in that parade since 1987,'' he said. "The problem is that there were those men who wanted to participate this year but they could not get their colleagues to cover for them.'' The Royal Gazette understands that there were 18 men who agreed to be part of the parade last week but three more were needed.

However that number dropped to 13 after a dispute arose about a clause in their recently negotiated contract.

The dispute centres around the question of overtime pay and days off for two streams of firefighters -- those who do shift work, which involves weekends, holidays and night duty, and those who work 8 a.m to 5 p.m Monday through Friday.

The firefighters want both streams to be entitled to the same pattern of days off even though those who work only on day shifts work a 37-hour week compared to the 42-hour week for those on shifts.

Mr. Rawlins explained that management refused the firefighters' request and the matter was still unresolved.

Even after an arbitrator's ruling, Mr. Rawlins said the matter was still ambiguous.

"If we accept their (firefighters) position, then no firefighter will want promotion because they will lose the ability to exploit the leave system like they do now,'' he said.

He pointed out that shift workers are able to make double time on holidays plus a day off, and that after a typical two day/two night shift, they enjoyed four days off.

Consequently, if a shift worker was approaching his annual leave, he could schedule it so that it followed his four days off, thus allowing him extra vacation time.

Additionally, he said, shift workers were demanding overtime work on holidays so that they could make double time plus a day off, but that management had cut back on extra staff and overtime.

As a result, only those needed for work were paid for the holiday.

Meawhile, day-only workers also want management to compensate them for the missed overtime they would have received had they been in the shift stream.

They also say that their interpretation of the arbitrator's decision backs them up.

Union secretary Mr. Charles Pearman refused to comment about the status of negotiations between his union and management.

When pressed, he conceded that they were dealing with "a delicate matter'' and he did not want to prejudice any ground that had been gained so far.