Coco Reef staff yesterday accused outgoing director Andrea Jennings of a dictatorial management style and ignoring the opinions of Bermudians.

One worker told The Royal Gazette: "She wanted cheap labour and that's what they did, they brought in cheap labour ... People working 24-7 for less money."

It also emerged that Labour Minister Randy Horton had already decided not to renew Ms Jennings' work permit.

Ms Jennings sent Coco Reef boss John Jefferis a letter in September announcing her official resignation from the hotel and giving three months notice. She will leave the post on December 31, she wrote.

In her letter she blasted the state of the tourism industry, likening it to a sinking ship.

This week Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess weighed into the controversy, accusing Ms Jennings of "sour grapes".

He said in November the BIU met with John Jefferis and Mr. Horton to argue the case for terminating Ms Jennings' time at Coco Reef. Mr. Horton then made the decision not to renew the Trinidadian director's work permit after January 31 - and, Mr. Burgess said, at no time did Mr. Jefferis mention the fact that, two months earlier, Ms Jennings had already stated she would be leaving Coco Reef on December 31. Calls to Mr. Horton and to Mr. Jefferis were not returned over the past two days.

Mr. Burgess and Coco Reef staff also hit back at accusations by Ms Jennings that Bermudian staff at the hotel were unwilling to work and resistant to change, arguing that if workers at the former Stonington Beach Resort were so terrible they would have been fired long ago.

Instead, staff who had been at the hotel for decades only left after being laid off or resigning during Ms Jennings' reign at the hotel, they said.

"They are long-serving staff members," Mr. Burgess said. "If they hadn't been up to par, they would've been long gone.

"It's sour grapes because she couldn't have her way," he declared, adding he felt "sorry" for Ms Jennings.

The union, he added, had "bent over backwards" to work with Ms Jennings in attempts to harmonise relations between her and her staff.

"We encourage all our members to do a good job," he said. "The better job you do, the less problems you'll have - most times."

"I've never been treated the way in which this woman has treated us," added one former Coco Reef worker who was at the hotel for 14 years.

A dictatorial management style and a lack of interest in the opinions of Bermudian staff who knew the Bermudian product left staff members cold to any attempts at change, he said.

Had Ms Jennings been Bermudian, he added, staff would never have been treated in the way they were. "She wanted cheap labour and that's what they did, they brought in cheap labour ... People working 24-7 for less money." Mr. Jefferis, he added, did not want to pay Bermudians.

Now that Ms Jennings is leaving, however, the former Coco Reef worker hoped staff could simply get back down to the business at hand. "We can get Coco Reef, as they call it now, up and running, with Bermudians who know what they're doing.

"It's ok to implement change. But there's a right way and a wrong way of going about things."