The proposed new developer of the former Club Med site has broken new ground in an agreement negotiated with the Bermuda Industrial Union.

According to tourism trade magazine Bermuda Dateline, Camberley Hotel Company recently signed an individual agreement with the BIU which is expected to take a completely different approach to labour relations -- stressing productivity and employee incentives.

And the agreement will not be confined to the same contractual time limitation as other agreements.

Camberley is also not expected to be a member of the Hotel Employers of Bermuda (HEB) -- which is the Bermuda Hotel Association (BHA) affiliate that negotiates collective agreements with the BIU.

However the company could join the BHA and not the HEB if it so chose. But BHA president Dennis Tucker told The Royal Gazette that he had not had any communications from Camberley about the matter.

"I hope they would join us and I am looking forward to welcoming them on board. I think we could be a big help to them,'' he said.

Shadow Tourism Minister David Allen -- the editor and publisher of Bermuda Dateline -- said he had no problems with the agreement from a tourism standpoint.

"It's certainly a different approach, but it's really a matter between the company and the Union.''