Relief came after limited industrial action at the docks prompted a group of wholesalers, importers and shippers to claim that a ban on overtime for dock-workers at the port of Hamilton, which unionised staff have now agreed to drop, had been responsible for driving up prices for Bermudian families.

The collective, which released an anonymous statement, claimed that asking the public to absorb higher prices to “maintain leverage against an employer in a personal dispute” was unfair.

The Royal Gazette understands that after a union meeting the port staff agreed to return to regular working hours.

Randy Rochester, the chief executive of Polaris Holding Company, which runs dock operator Stevedoring Services Ltd, confirmed earlier that there was no backlog of containers at the facility — but told the Gazette the company “fully empathises with the wholesalers”.

He said SSL was “not pleased” whenever overtime went on hold, because “the only ones who suffer at the end of the day are the customers, as we have been stating from Day 1”.

The remarks came after Dawud Tucker, the president of the Bermuda Industrial Union’s port workers division, called for community support over its group’s decision to ban overtime at the docks this summer.

On Wednesday, the BIU urged management to rejoin talks on reinstating a worker who a tribunal ruled in 2024 had been unfairly dismissed.

Chris Furbert, the president of the union, acknowledged that the dispute concerned his son, Chris Furbert Jr, who was summarily dismissed from Stevedoring Services Ltd in 2020 after a conflict with management.

The Gazette was told that four businesses agreed to release the statement from “multiple wholesalers, importers and shippers” in response.

“Lowering Bermuda’s cost of living demands united action, not the leverage of the entire country by one dismissed employee and his union-leader father,” the group said.

“Five years on, their personal grievances should not be allowed to gamble with the country’s food security, erode nutrition or push every family’s bills higher each month.”

At the media conference on Wednesday, Mr Tucker described the ban as the only recourse available to the union, as port staff are deemed essential workers under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 2021.

He added: “We’ve got to this point, we are still not being heard by the employer and we are asking the public to support us so that we can get the employer to come to the table.”

Mr Tucker insisted: “This is not something we intended to put the public through. This is our only voice, the only card we can play when it comes to industrial action, and that’s the suspension of overtime.

“We’re always open to the public’s best interests. We do not want to go through this, so we try to minimise the impact by a ban on overtime to get the attention of the employer.”

The group of wholesalers, importers and shippers said: “That framing ignores who is actually paying the bill.

“Overtime bans do not raise dockworkers’ pay; they raise Bermuda’s cost of living. Households pay more for groceries and essentials, and businesses shoulder spoilage, emergency logistics and demurrage.

“That is not solidarity; it is cost-shifting on to 55,000 people.

“The issue here is not labour, it is conduct. You can support workers and still reject a tactic that treats an essential service as leverage for a single, long-running employment dispute.

“In light of the Government's call for all sectors to help lower the cost of living, it is difficult to square the union’s decision to maintain the overtime ban with those shared goals.

“Shippers are working to move more product faster at lower cost. The union’s tactic manufactures delay and raise prices for all families.”

The collective, speaking ahead of the union meeting, called for a six-week suspension of the overtime ban to “stabilise supply”, adding: “The public’s message is simple — keep the food moving and take the dispute to talks or arbitration. An overtime ban does not increase worker pay; it suppresses it.”

While Mr Rochester maintained that docks management made the swift unloading of refrigerated containers a priority, the importers and distributors said that delays this summer had an impact on quality.

The statement said: “Every extra hour on the dock shortens shelf life, increases spoilage and waste and pushes up prices.”

“Fresh produce is not designed to sit sealed on a hot dockside. Eggs, lettuces, tomatoes and berries require prompt offload and temperature-controlled warehousing ashore; many arrive in ventilated cartons that cannot be frozen.”

The group added that the “operational picture has been poor”, noting that the coincidence of the overtime ban with the failure of a docks crane this summer led to a backlog.

Although delays were not a factor at present, the group told the Gazette that the Cup Match holiday week had been “a mess” getting some items off the docks — and that each week presented “some form of delays”.

They said offloading was prone to difficulties such as storms affecting boat schedules.

The group also said that the industrial action had lacked full support among dock-workers, which they said implied that “internal union politics” played a role because the matter involved the union leader’s son.

The group said that residents “deserve confidence that choices affecting the national lifeline are being made in the wider public interest, not through the prism of family ties”.

The BIU president was open this week in “declaring my interests” when he acknowledged that his son was at the centre of the dispute.

At the time, Mr Furbert said: “If it was any other worker than Chris Furbert Jr, would the decision be the same?”

He added: “It’s got to be personal.”

A Ministry of Home Affairs spokeswoman said the ministry was aware that dropping overtime had implications for “the timely movement of goods, which can in turn affect cost-of-living pressures for residents and businesses alike”.

She said the ministry had monitored the situation “closely” and kept in communication with those involved, with the priority of safeguarding access to essentials.

“We have confidence that this labour matter, under the remit of the Ministry of Economy and Labour, is amply being managed by the minister responsible and his team.”

She said that while the matter remained before the courts, “we support a resolution that balances industrial rights with the critical need for operational continuity at the docks”.

An economy and labour spokeswoman highlighted that in January a tribunal had issued an award in the matter of Chris Furbert Jr and Stevedoring Services Ltd, which was now being appealed in the Supreme Court.

The ministry had been “fully aware” of the overtime ban in relation to the dispute.

“However, we will not provide further comment as this matter is subject to additional legal proceedings.”

She said the ministry appreciated the commitment of those involved to resolve the matter and urged “constructive discussion that considers the wellbeing of their workers as well as the needs of the public, while they await the outcome of the Supreme Court decision”.