Government should review the management style of hotels when considering reasons for declining visitor numbers, Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess has suggested.

Mr. Burgess was responding to a report by The Royal Gazette that Bermudians were leaving Elbow Beach Hotel due to frustration with management.

More than 20 local staff members, including managers, quit the hotel within four weeks.

And several disgruntled workers said they were "hanging on'' until another job came along.

They claimed that foreigners, particularly Germans, were taking over the hotel.

Placing the blame on the hotel's general manager Ingo Schweder and local managers who were "frightened to stand up to him'', the Bermudians warned that if nothing was done soon about the situation, the Island would ultimately suffer.

But both Mr. Schweder and Human Resource manager of Elbow Beach, Robert Calderon, denied the workers' claims.

While noting that many of the complaints were not valid and were based on emotion, they said the workers were frustrated because the hotel was no longer prepared to tolerate incompetence and bad attitudes.

They also stressed that the needs of the visitor was paramount to the success of the hotel and ultimately Bermuda.

And Mr. Schweder pointed out that the hotel had improved on guest satisfaction and return visitor business as a result of management style which included sending staff overseas.

Mr. Burgess pointed out that the union "has never ever been against training''.

"We have training seminars every month,'' he said. "And we encourage every employee to get training. The training he is talking about is not training. It is new exposure. But you can't get any better training than on the job. There are people here who had our standards so high. Why not use them?'' Mr. Burgess also blamed the Labour and Immigration Ministry for the Elbow Beach situation.

"When we get these type of problems we go to the Ministry,'' he said. "The Minister has not done anything.

"Every time you take a complaint to the Ministry about the employer, they take the side of the employer automatically.

"Immigration is no help to the worker. They just give away permits carte blanche. I'm not against the foreigners, but I don't like to see this happening when Bermudians are unemployed.'' Mr. Burgess noted that in the 1960s and early 1970s Bermuda hotels had silver service and the majority of dining rooms were serviced by Bermudians.

"Now we have plate service and they bring in foreigners,'' he said. "No-one can tell me that Bermudians are lazy because in any country, the foreigners perform extra because they want to stay.'' Mr. Burgess said some restaurants were even bringing in pot washers. "Their excuse is that they have a high turnover,'' he said. "But if the situation was managed right, they would not have to bring in such workers.'' Restaurants could have a pool of local pot washers and can have them work different shifts, he suggested.

Mr. Burgess urged local staff at the Elbow Beach to stay put.

"Leaving does not solve the problem,'' he said. "We (Bermudians) have to stay there and fight it because at the end of the day we have nowhere else to go, they (foreigners) do. We have to stay and fight the unpleasantness. We have to stay here for our children. After all, tourism is the livelihood of this country.'' Stressing that the union wanted all visitors to have a "good experience'', both in the hotels and generally on the Island, Mr. Burgess added:"But these good experiences and attitudes develop into whatever is happening in Bermuda.

"The Bermudian attitude is good, but it can be tempered with. It appears the management style we have today is more concerned with control rather than service. And it happens because we have managers who come from cities rather than resorts. They come here with no experience in the resort area.'' Mr. Burgess said: "The Department of Tourism should be addressing strongly, not only the visitor numbers we're not getting, but the management style of these hotels. We are always talking about the plant and the staff, but what about the managers. They're the ones that need to be investigated.

"A lot of people come in this country and see the dark skin and treat it (Bermuda) as a third world country.

"How can somebody teach me about standards when that's what we're famous for? You're going to bring somebody from a country that is not famous for high standards to teach me about standards? "Government is the regulator of this country. And if they sit back and do nothing, nothing will happen.

"If they put as much effort in this industry as they did the hamburger issue, we would be okay.'' Labour Minister Quinton Edness was off the Island and unavailable for comment.

And Tourism Minister David Dodwell said the issue raised about hotel management was more for the Labour Ministry, than his.

But he added: "It is a tough subject. It is a changing world out there. While the message of Mr. Schweder may be tough, there is only one employer out there, that is the customer. The customer is the one who sets the tone. It is not the hotel.

"It's no question that the hospitality industry is struggling,'' Mr. Dodwell admitted. "Clearly any loss of Bermudians in the hospitality industry does concern me because this should be our bread and butter. Clearly we have got to grow the industry, not just save money. We have to raise occupancy level and visitor arrivals.'' But he stressed that it was up to both the public and private sectors to do this.

"The investment has to come as cooperation with the public sector and private sector.

"We're spending money on a marketing campaign and also investors are spending money wisely and we're doing it together.

"(In the case of Elbow Beach) We have someone who thinks differently and comes from high quality hotels. We've got to be careful not to shoot the messenger, but rather look at what the customer wants.''