a labour dispute involving his nephew blew up, it was claimed yesterday.

The move came after Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess was unable to shift his first vice-president Chris Furbert from the docks on Sunday morning after being called in by employees of Stevedoring Services sources said.

And yesterday morning normal docking of the cruise ship Zenith did not take place because of a meeting of dock workers called by Mr. Furbert.

Instead, management are understood to have provided docking assistance to the New York-based liner.

Now Stevedoring Services are set to make a final decision today on the future of employee Shawn Perrott, who is said to be Mr. Furbert's nephew.

The dispute began last week after Mr. Perrott -- ruled unfit for his current job -- was said to have been offered a different role with the firm or redundancy terms and given time to think it over.

But he turned up late on the day he was supposed to return with a decision and the company is understood to have fired him.

According to an employee, who asked not to be named, Mr. Furbert then turned up, met with staff and called for a weekend overtime ban -- without the union-agreed five days notice with reasons in writing.

But at least 15 workers turned up on Sunday morning and started to unload the cargo ship Somers Isles .

It is understood Mr. Furbert arrived at the dockside and argued unsuccessfully that the ship should not be unloaded. He was removed after he stood in front of a crane, blocking its operation.

It is understood that it was agreed that essential cargo would be unloaded from the Oleander on Sunday afternoon. But this was not completed, although a container of oxygen destined for the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital was sent on its way.

Mr. Burgess last night declined to comment on the allegations about Mr.

Furbert.

Neither Mr. Furbert or management at Stevedoring Services could be contacted for comment last night.

But Mr. Burgess confirmed: "There was a problem -- which in our opinion was due to the Labour Relations Officer not furnishing us with information they had furnished management with on September 12.

"The Labour Relations Officer was doing a mediation on a problem and never got back to us. The management took action which brought it to a head.'' He said the talks were over an employee -- whose identity he declined to confirm -- who had suffered a work-related injury some time ago and added that a change of job appeared to be necessary.

Mr. Burgess also confirmed that a meeting with Stevedoring Services chiefs had been held yesterday afternoon. He said a proposal had been made by the union and the firm had promised to respond by today.

Labour and Home Affairs Minister Quinton Edness said the dispute appeared to centre around a situation where an employee was to have been trained on a particular piece of equipment and that the matter had been referred to the Labour Relations office.

But he added that management had "short-circuited'' the process and dismissed the worker.

He said: "They are all back at work, management has reconsidered its position and this particular issue should be resolved.'' Derrick Burgess