Long-serving local workers are being forced out of Coco Reef to make way for cut-price foreign labour, fed up ex-staffers claimed last night.

And labour shortages have led to rooms being closed said Tourism Minister Renee Webb who blamed it on work permit hold ups.

A group of hotel workers told that 37 of the 60-odd staff had resigned or been sacked since the take over of Stonington Beach in a move they fear is designed to free up the premises for residential development.

They said there were just 16 rooms occupied out of 67 and the hotel was not taking reservations after August 31 while it was impossible to make a booking because there was no one take them.

One former staff member said the hotel, which used to groom people in the hotel trade, no longer took hospitality students. ?The College is afraid to send them. They are doing internships at other hotels.?

Tourism Minister Renee Webb said she knew nothing about the labour problem. ?We heard people took redundancy.?

Others were docked money tied to the training of Bermudians if they were not actually doing the training said Ms Webb.

?I haven?t heard that there is an issue with management. I cannot get into the staffing. We are not so much concerned with the staffing.

?There is a new management that?s taken over and clearly management is going to implement its own policies and regulations. I am not getting into that.?

But she said complaints tourists were not being served properly was a concern for Government.

?I have heard that guests have been complaining they haven?t been getting the service they would like to and that have inexperienced staff.?

But Bermudians who had worked at the hotel for years said they were being forced to take aptitude tests and tests on Bermuda knowledge while foreign staff were being hired before they had even filled out application forms. One said: ?They are getting one person to do five people?s jobs.?

They attacked Trinidadian hotel director Andrea Jennings who they said distrusted local staff and manoeuvred them out of long-held positions to get new staff on the minimum rate required by the union.

Staff complained about her arrogance and rudeness. Neither Ms Jennings or Coco Reef owner John Jefferis returned calls last night.

One man with nearly 20 years at the hotel said he had taken his sacking for gross negligence to the Labour Relations Office but letters sent by his lawyer to the hotel had been ignored.

Another is fighting the hotel for severance pay after she was removed her from her post and then offered worse working conditions on the same pay.

Staff said reassurances given by Government last year that their jobs and conditions would be safe before the take over had been flouted.

Problems have persisted despite strikes and the involvement of the unions in trying to broker fair deals said angry staff. Management had said customers had complained about areas of service said who believe the complaints were fabricated, as were some of the grounds for sacking.