Lay-offs in the hotel industry in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States are the worst in living memory, according to Bermuda Industrial Union President Derrick Burgess.

Staff have seen their wage packets slashed towards the end of this season as hotels have dramatically cut back their hours in response to the slump in visitors.

Shorting working hours introduced since the tragedy mean the equivalent of 100 people less each month have been working at the Island's largest hotel, the Fairmont Southampton Princess, in September, October and November.

Occupancy at the hotel has slid from an expected 80 percent in October to just 40 percent, and the Pink Beach Club is also half as busy as last year - although Pink Beach managing director Michael Williams will not reveal actual figures.

Mr. Burgess told The Royal Gazette: "It's the worst that I've seen it because there are things that we have no control over.

"It's the same as it has been in October where there are little peaks, but it is far from normal and I don't expect it to be normal until the season starts again next year. I don't have any figures for lay-offs, but a lot of people are working shorter weeks, even managers. Everything depends on people being confident enough to get back on those planes, but I'm optimistic that it will improve." Third quarter arrival figures for July August and September released last Friday show numbers are down 12.1 percent on the same period last year at 179,006.

Southampton Princess general manager Norman Mastalir said 20 managers were laid off in October while another ten were repositioned throughout the hotel. Occupancy rates at the hotel for November have also dropped from an expected 65 percent to 40 percent. "We're in the normal winter lay off situation now, its come about a month early. It's a little more severe than it would have been in a normal year," said Mr. Mastalir. The hotel had unexpectedly more guests in the immediate wake of September 11 after flights out of the Island were delayed and others were diverted to Bermuda, but after that it was virtually empty.

"It started around September 15, after the delayed people left the hotel, and we were pretty empty. In December, most people are typically laid off. A number of the unionised employees have lost a lot of hours."

Sonesta Beach Hotel general manager Stephan Amesoeder said: "We're lacking a bit behind. We had group bookings for September and October and we took a slight beating.

"A lot of groups cancelled because of fear of flying, but we are confident that next year that confidence, and consumer confidence in Bermuda, will return. Next year I think we will have a decent year, not great."

Mr. Williams at Pink Beach said: "We're doing very badly, about half what we did last year. We have probably slightly lower staffing levels than normal - 80 as opposed to around 100 depending on occupancy - but we try to keep everyone that we can employed and give them work until the end of the year."

The Reefs, which has traditionally enjoyed extremely high repeat business, has also been hit since September 11, with occupancy projections down ten percent this month at 61 percent.

Owner David Dodwell, the Shadow Tourism Minister, said: "We have some foreign staff who work the summers and we've let them go. After that, the lay-offs with locals have been close to none.

"We're projecting 61 percent occupancy for November which is down ten percent on last year, but I would suspect we are doing better than most. Given what happened on September 11, I'm fairly pleased with our November projections."