reference'' to be drawn up so he can send contentious hotel contract talks before the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board as expected.

Meanwhile, Pink Beach Club cottage colony, which controversially severed ties with the BIU three years ago, has given its workers a three percent wage hike effective March 1.

"We are delighted that this is already in place before the season gets underway,'' management said in a staff newsletter, adding the increase was approved by staff.

But the Bermuda Industrial Union and Hotel Employers of Bermuda have been unable to reach an agreement on a new contract and wage increase for unionised hotel workers.

HEB official Mr. John Harvey last week asked that the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board be convened "as early as possible'' to settle the BIU's "outlandish demands''.

Unionised hotel workers, meanwhile, voted to strike if a "speedy and equitable solution'' was not reached.

"We are meeting with both parties to determine what issues are outstanding so we can draw up the terms of reference for the arbitration tribunal and appoint it,'' Mr. Pearman said yesterday.

EIDSB chairman Mr. Arnold Zack, an American, is likely to fly to Bermuda to preside over the hearings once again.

Mr. Pearman could not fix a date for the hearings, but said they would definitely take place before the summer.

BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP has challenged sending the talks to the disputes board saying the law stipulated that when parties in an essential industry have irreconcilable differences, the collective agreement that existed prior to the beginning of negotiations "shall be deemed to be in force and shall continue to be in force until replaced by the new agreement''.