redundancies since the beginning of the year.

The redundancies, coming in the middle of the Island's peak tourist season, were a sign that the hotel industry is still deep in recession.

And general manager Mr. Adrian Constant said yesterday he cannot promise there will not be further redundancies at the hotel, which has been barely half full since the beginning of summer.

"We are just not in a profitable situation at the moment,'' Mr. Constant said. "It was very sad that we had to do it -- they were good employees.'' He said he had spoken to the Bermuda Industrial Union about the redundancies and claimed it "understands the hotel's situation very well''.

"Occupancies have been around 50 percent since June,'' he said. "We did have a slight growth in occupancies over 1991, but we are still not making money.'' However, BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons said last night neither he nor secretary and hotels organiser Ms Molly Burgess had heard from the hotel.

"We are normally at least consulted if redundancies are planned,'' Mr.

Simmons said. "We are very concerned when people are made redundant in these so-called lean times. Employers generally seem to think these difficult economic experiences, they claim to have, do not affect the workers.'' Mr. Simmons urged the employees who were let go to report to the BIU, even if they are not unionised.

The employees included two golf course workers, two from the hotels maintenance department, a secretary and the banquet and catering manager.

They were given the news yesterday. Their last working day is Friday.

Mrs. Rosemarie Simmons said she is an example of just how bad things are at the Belmont Hotel, which is run by Forte Hotels in Britain.

Having worked at the hotel for three years, she was management's only secretary when she was made redundant yesterday. "Mr. Constant said he will do the typing himself,'' she said.

Mrs. Simmons said she decided to speak out about the redundancies because they were the second batch this year.

In January, eight employees were made redundant after the hotel suffered a $1.5 million loss over 1990. The 154-room Warwick hotel has a staff of about 130.

Another disgruntled former employee of the hotel, who did not want to give her name, said yesterday she was let go in May.

She said she had worked as a guest relations manager for two years and had been promoted four months before being made redundant.

The woman said she was so upset at losing her job she sought legal advice and wrote to the Labour Minister, from whom she is awaiting a response.

She charged the hotel was "wasting money'' on activities such as the children's club when it is "badly in need of renovation''.

Mrs. Simmons said she enjoyed her job and did it well. She was shocked when Mr. Constant called her into his office and told she no longer had a job with the hotel.

"My first reaction was `why me?','' Mrs. Simmons said. "He offered me two days a week, but no one can live on that,'' she said. "I'll be getting redundancy pay but its the principle I am concerned about -- too many people are losing their jobs at that hotel.

"If they are going to make cuts they should make cuts all round -not just salaries and jobs.'' Mrs. Simmons claimed a number of programmes recently introduced at the hotel such as mini-golf, the children's club and game fishing were not making money.

"Why not cut them,'' she asked.

But Mr. Constant said the programmes, aimed to boost occupancies, were profitable, especially the gamefishing.

Weekly airport visitor arrivals for the week ending August 16 were down 4.9 percent compared to the same time last year.

Arrivals for the last four weeks were down 3.1 percent on the same period last year.

Arrivals were up only 0.9 percent for the period April to August, the Island's peak season. From January to August, they were down 4.1 percent.