secretary of the Bermuda Industrial Union, Mrs. Molly Burgess, said yesterday the hotel industry must get "on line'' with companies in other fields.

Mrs. Burgess was continuing her testimony before the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board, which will attempt to resolve a number of longstanding issues between the BIU and the Hotel Employers of Bermuda (HEB).

Fielding questions from BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons, Mrs. Burgess repeatedly said employees at various hotels were "most upset'' by the current state of contract negotiations.

Among the issues addressed by Mr. Simmons and Mrs. Burgess during the day's proceedings were sick leave, wages and what they saw as errors in the 1988-91 agreement between the two organisations.

Mrs. Burgess agreed that employees caught consuming a hotel meal without having paid the nominal price should be disciplined, but she said they should not be charged for the meal as well.

"That's two punishments in one,'' said Mrs. Burgess.

Calling existing sick leave provisions "inadequate'', Mrs. Burgess said she believed hotel workers had the lowest number of paid sick days out of all union agreements.

The BIU proposed up to 90 days of paid sick leave as opposed to the current 75.

Mrs. Burgess said she assumed the number of days was low because the HEB wished to keep abuse of sick leave to a minimum, but she noted the BIU had never received any evidence of such goings-on. If there ever is any reason for suspicion she said, a medical certificate of illness must be provided.

She said there was also disagreement with the HEB over injured workers having recovery days being included as sick days, and laid-off workers not being entitled to sick pay at all.

Public holiday pay for regular part-time staff was also addressed by the BIU general secretary, who said the workers should be paid for these holidays even if they do not happen to "coincide with the employee's scheduled work day'' as stated in the 1988-91 agreement.

The hot topic of the day, however, was wages.

The BIU insisted that the HEB had agreed to adopt the recommendations put forward by the 1991 Hobgood report, which set a pay increase schedule of five percent in 1991/92, with five and six percent in the following two years.

Mrs. Burgess said the union membership rejected the report's recommendations as inadequate, and agreed with Mr. Simmons' statement that the HEB -- with the exception of Elbow Beach Hotel -- "went back on their word'' and lowered the increases to less than five percent.

Mr. Simmons made it clear that the BIU was looking for a wage increase of at least seven percent in the first year of any new agreement.

Mrs. Burgess will continue with her testimony when the hearing resumes on Monday morning.