ordering hoteliers to pay their workers higher gratuity rates for 1992.

The Royal Gazette understands the Essential Industries Disputes Board has dropped its special decision on the issue and decided to let its original contract settlement stand.

The Board's decision could be made public as early as today.

The decision makes it likely the Bermuda Industrial Union will have to go to court to win its gratuities claim.

The two sides appeared before the Board on Monday arguing the issue that stands as the last significant roadblock to a four-year contract for the industry.

The dispute, which hoteliers described as a deal-breaker, centres on a statement in the Board's original contract settlement that gratuities increases were to "come into effect for each of the remaining two years'' of the 1991-1994 contract.

In April, the Board considered a BIU request that the settlement should have extended gratuities increases to 1992 -- a year excluded by the wording in its decision.

The Board subsequently acknowledged its wording contained "an ambiguity...

which must be resolved.'' It decided that tips increases -- 25 cents a worker a day -- did apply to 1992.

In the dispute that followed, the Labour Minister referred the matter back to the Board, which brought both sides together on Monday.

The HEB argued the Board's decision was clear and the gratuities issue did not warrant interpretation.