Mystery surrounds the legal action taken by Bermuda Industrial Union (BIU) and 26 of its members against local company Sealand Construction.

The union's building and construction division issued a writ against Sealand on June 20, but yesterday the company said it had received nothing and had no idea what the legal action was about.

A company director said he was hoping to meet BIU president Derrick Burgess, who is off the Island, on Monday to discuss the issue.

A spokeswoman for the union's lawyers, Trott and Duncan, said the company could not comment because lawyer Delroy Duncan is out of the office until Monday.

A Sealand Construction director, who asked not to be named, yesterday said: "We haven't received official notification of anything or received a copy and we are trying to find out where it is and where it is delivered to.

"Until we know that, there is nothing further we can say. I called the BIU and I expect to meet Derrick Burgess on Monday to find out what it is about."

The director said most of those named in the writ were no longer with the company and they all worked on a variety of different jobs.

In December last year, Sealand said it was merging with an unnamed European company, which would result in job losses if no new work was found.

Sealand has been contracted to work on the troubled luxury condominium project at Harbour Road, Paget, which is two years behind schedule.

Tennis star Patrick Rafter is known to have pulled out of a deal to buy one of the condo's, which are selling for $700,000 to $1.3 million, because of the delays.

The Wharf Development Company, the firm behind the development and the new Wharf Executive Hotel on the same site, announced in January it was going through a "refinancing package".

The Wharf Development Company said then that the project would definitely go ahead, and it said a team of Canadians had been brought in on short term work permits to finish off part of the Wharf Executive Hotel, which is scheduled to open in July.

The writ is in the name of the union and Erskine Brangman, Cavin Burchall, Darren Burgess, Alfred Cesar Jr., Leon T. Darell, Preston Dill, George Douglas, Norwood Edwards, Lawrence Hall, Burton Harvey, Richard James, Jahmahi Lewis, Gladstone Lightbourn, James P. Minors, Alexander R. Muntzke, McKinnon Pearman, Gilbert Reid, Waune Saunders, Alfred Sewell, Rudy V. Sewell, Gerald Smith, Rudolph Smith, Oliver Smith, Anthony Woodley, (with K Flemming and E Phipps named as surplus).