Unionised dock-workers have ruled out downing tools at the port of Hamilton, but are urging management to rejoin talks on reinstating a worker who a tribunal ruled in 2024 had been unfairly dismissed.

Dawud Tucker, the president of the Bermuda Industrial Union’s port workers division, also appealed for the public’s support, emphasising that the group’s decision to ban overtime at the docks had an impact on the workers themselves as well as the broader community.

A fresh ban on working overtime over the matter came into effect on June 13.

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: “Downing tools would be the worst thing for us to do right now.

“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 we can get the employer to come to the table.

“It was clearly started wrong, and we need to make it right.”

Mr Tucker said that port staff were to meet this Friday to discuss the matter.

Chris Furbert, the BIU president, acknowledged that the dispute concerned his son, Chris Furbert Jr.

“It’s my son, but also a member of the BIU,” he said — highlighting that while compensation has been ordered by the same Employment and Labour Relations Tribunal that ruled the dismissal to be unfair, his son had not yet taken “one dime”.

The tribunal stopped short of ordering the dock-worker to be reinstated, but the union maintained that article 30 of its collective bargaining agreement, which dates back 53 years, provided the right of reinstatement in cases of “unjustified dismissal”.

The dispute originated in 2020, when the unionised worker was summarily dismissed from Stevedoring Services Ltd after a conflict with management.

In February of that year, Mr Furbert Jr was involved in an altercation with Warren Jones, who was the chief executive of Polaris Holding Company and Stevedoring Services at the time.

A police complaint was made about an alleged threat that the worker was said to have made to Mr Jones, but the Department of Public Prosecutions determined that no offence had been committed and no charges were brought.

Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, referred the matter to an industrial tribunal. Both sides are now appealing the tribunal’s ruling.

Mr Furbert Jr also applied for an injunction to block Stevedoring Services from filling his former post pending the result of the appeal — although that was turned down by the Supreme Court.

Mr Furbert, the BIU president, said that the dispute with management was not the only problem his son had experienced in the workplace, and said the company had also failed to act on threatening behaviour on the job.

Randolph Rochester, the chief executive of Stevedoring Services, said he was limited in what he could comment upon because the matter was before court, with “both parties appealing”.

Mr Rochester added: “However, what I will say is this: both sides had opportunity to share all relevant information during their presentations over the two days of the tribunal hearing back in September 2024.

“The tribunal decision was rendered with either party aggrieved by the decision having the right to appeal to the Supreme Court on a point of law 21 days after receipt of notification of the tribunal’s award.”

Mr Rochester said the company was awaiting the date of the Supreme Court hearing and “will not get drawn into discussing any legal matters”.

Mr Tucker expressed regret for the overtime ban, which has posed a challenge to unloading shipping. In 2023, the management described it as having “a limited impact”.

In June of this year, the issue was compounded by broken cranes at the docks,

Mr Tucker said: “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.”

He added: “Our only other option is to get the voice of the public to support us in getting the employer back to the table so we can get a resolution and go back to regular business.”