Hungry and desperate Wyndham Hotel workers believe they will be re-called to start work in the middle of March without receiving a single cent of the money they had expected to tide them over during their unexpected winter lay-off.

One disillusioned housekeeper, who has only been able to survive because of assistance from her grown-up children and lodgings at her mother?s apartment, said: ?My fridge and my cabinets are empty. The hotel management haven?t even called us to see if we have a slice of bread to eat or if we?re healthy enough to come back to work.

?They want us to go back to work when we don?t know if we are going to get the money we?re owed. We are going to have to smile to guests and to the manager knowing he owes us money.

?We are getting frustrated and hungry and I know some people who had managed to save money but are now down to their last dollar,? she said.

The woman, who along with a co-worker spoke to on condition that their names were not published for fear of losing their jobs, expressed disillusionment with the hotel management, the Bermuda Industrial Union and the Government for leaving the out-of-work staff to struggle on with little or no help.

?I?ve worked in nine hotels on the Island and I?ve never known it as bad as this,? she said.

?All we want is someone to call us and tell us what is going on.?

More than 100 workers were left in the lurch at the start of January when the hotel management made a sudden announcement that the resort was closing immediately and re-opening in April.

After a meeting of hotel staff union members at the Bermuda Industrial Union headquarters in January, union president Derrick Burgess said the BIU was keeping in contact with the hotel management and ensuring they fulfilled obligations to workers under the collective agreement it has with the union.

A BIU spokeswoman said yesterday Mr. Burgess was off the Island and the union has been unable to contact hotel owner Clifford Schorer to discuss developments.

The laid-off housekeeper, who lives in Southampton, said: ?At the union meeting Mr. Burgess told us that Mr. Schorer can?t re-open the hotel until we get the three-weeks wages he owes us for closing without giving the Government four-weeks notice.

?He told us that they would not be able to re-open until we got what we were owed.?

But no payment has been made, she said, and now a security guard at the hotel had informed her that the staff will be recalled to start work again on March 13.

?She also told me that Mr. Schorer visits the hotel every Sunday. I?ve been to the BIU and been told that I will have to go back to work before we get the money that we are owed. I?ve been to Financial Assistance and they are going to try to help us by the end of the month. But I?ve got no food. How can these people be so inhumane to us? And why were we told that the hotel could not re-open without paying us the money we are owed??

The former union shop steward said she had been getting just $21.60 from the union for the past six weeks to live on, and said that 85 percent of the laid-off workers had been unable to find any other work.

?I want to know what the union is doing. If a co-worker says Mr. Schorer is on the Island why can?t the union track him down??

She said the foreign workers at the hotel had been taken care off by being given plane tickets back home, but Bermudian staff have not been given the required assistance.

?I?ve never seen anything like this in Bermuda. I know staff who say they are not going back because they don?t want this to happen to them again,? she added.

A fellow worker, who has been at the hotel for five years, said: ?We have not had any of the money we were expecting. I love my job but I thank the Lord I haven?t got any kids to look after during this. They are letting us sit around here like dummies. They should let us know what the deal is. I?m getting $57 a week from the union to live on and there are no other jobs. We just want to get a little respect.? has left phone messages at the hotel and with US-based hotel management company Cendant but was still awaiting a response yesterday.

Wyndham Hotels group director of sales Jeff Hyde, in the US, confirmed that the hotel intends to reopen on March 23 with staff returning to work sometime before then but referred theto local management for details about arrangements with local workers.