after a new panel member was appointed yesterday to replace Mr. Michael Mello.

Labour Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman put accountant Mr. Gregory Haycock on the three-member panel and said hearings on the hotel workers' contract will go ahead as scheduled on Monday.

Mr. Mello resigned from the panel in the face of objections from the Hotel Employers of Bermuda. HEB president Mr. Dennis Tucker said last night that the organisation will raise no objection to Mr. Haycock or other panel members.

"We've spent the last year-and-a-half on these negotiations,'' Mr. Tucker said. "We are very, very anxious for this whole matter to be resolved. We have to get back to spending some time improving our occupancies in our hotels.'' Mr. Haycock, a Butterfield & Steinhoff partner, will join Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board chairman Prof. Ronald Haughton and Canon James Francis on the board.

The hearings are expected to be lengthy as hoteliers try to persuade the board they are in financial straits and cannot afford to offer more, while the Bermuda Industrial Union argues that more can and must be given to the workers.

The last collective agreement expired more than a year ago, and negotiations, mediation and arbitration attempts since then have been futile. It was partly in response to the contract dispute that the Settlement Board was created last summer.

The board's findings are supposed to be binding but in its only previous case, Grotto Bay Beach Hotel management refused to participate and then refused to adhere to the findings. The BIU has refused so far to seek enforcement through the courts.

The Settlement Board panel first met on the HEB/BIU contract dispute earlier this month but quickly adjourned because a court fight over Mr. Mello's inclusion was pending.

In the Supreme Court on Friday, the HEB claimed Mr. Mello's efforts last year to bring the parties back to the negotiating table created a "suspicion of a likelihood of bias.'' Chief Justice the Hon. Sir James Astwood rejected the claim outright, but the HEB began preparing an appeal.

Mr. Mello resigned from the three-man panel on Monday, saying he wanted to ensure the contract dispute was settled as quickly as possible.