While Coco Reef Hotel and the Bermuda Industrial Union were meeting yesterday in an effort to resolve a dispute between the hotel staff and owners which resulted in a staff "sit-down" strike on Tuesday, a memo came to light which suggests problems run deep at the hotel.

In a memo to department heads that was leaked to The Royal Gazette, hotel director Andrea Jennings launched a blistering attack on managers and staff remain unhappy with Ms Jennings and hotel owner, John Jefferis.

"We are sick and tired of the lies," one employee told The Royal Gazette.

Coco Reef, formerly the Stonington Beach Hotel, used to be a "family" said another, with employees' children calling their parents' co-workers "aunty". But with the arrival of Mr. Jefferis and, more recently, Ms Jennings, employees said all that has changed. "Everybody is uncomfortable coming to work."

In an article about the dispute which appeared in The Royal Gazette yesterday Ms Jennings called the Coco Reef staff "the best staff I've seen".

Despite this statement, Ms Jennings also sent a memo on Tuesday to Coco Reef general manager Perry Robinson and hotel department heads in which she stated: "Should you and your team of 'managers' decide to continue fumbling around in this style of service, then you all need to seriously reconsider your present roles. Our resort will not accept such poor work performance from any of you."

In the memo, Ms Jennings gave a scathing commentary on the performance of every department in the hotel.

She called the Front Office "poor", adding: "Sarcastic comments made to our guests (are) not only unprofessional, (they are) discourteous."

Food and Beverage came in for a tongue lashing when she wrote: "It is typical 'Amateur Hour' when we rudely remove an in-use condiment from one table to offer to a guest at another table."

She was "appalled" at the standards of the Housekeeping department, saying: "If your staff do not want to perform turndown service, then find people who want to work."

And she said to Engineering/Maintenance: "How many times do I have to ask you to get those pieces of wood and lumber removed from outside Room 108? ...You also did not see it necessary to generally clean up around this area. The hurricane passed over one month ago ... The work place is not a sleep area.

"There is too much work to be completed for someone to have the time to sleep on the job."

When contacted by The Royal Gazette about the discrepancy between her statements to the press and those in the memo, however, Ms Jennings said the memo was to the department heads - not staff.

She pointed to a line where she specified managers that read: "How can we expect our line staff to be committed to this hotel if we as managers are not committed to our jobs?"

"Who motivates the staff?" she said to The Royal Gazette. "It's the leadership that motivates the staff. If we don't lead by example how can we expect them to do the right thing?

"In our business, the service business, we are here primarily for the customer, and secondarily for the staff. It goes in that order.

"We can't look after management and staff first, and then the customer. I have to stand firm by this memo. I have to act by my customer and my customer has spoken."

BIU president Mr. Burgess was hopeful last night that the dispute will be sorted out soon, however.

Though he would not give specifics, he said: "We had a successful meeting with staff (yesterday). There will be more meetings, there are odds and ends to be sorted."

Saying he was unsure when the next meeting would be, Mr. Burgess said it could be as early as today and would involve the BIU and hotel managers. "I'm very optimistic everything will be sorted out," he said.