compensation and vacation pay, Hotel Employers of Bermuda vice president Mr.

Dennis Tucker told the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board yesterday.

He said the BIU wanted to "more than triple'' the weekly lay-off payment (from $60-a-week to $190-a-week). On top of that, Mr. Tucker claimed the Union wanted the period a hotel worker can receive lay-off compensation to be unlimited.

"The proposal is just another exorbitant demand by the BIU for pay for non-productive time,'' Mr. Tucker said.

He went on to list the BIU's proposals for vacation pay: An extra week for all hotel workers and even more for the longtime employees. Currently hotel workers with less than five years service get two weeks paid vacation.

Mr. Tucker, manager of Sonesta Beach Hotel, was testifying as the second week of hotel workers contract talks got underway in Cathedral Hall yesterday afternoon.

The entire morning and most of the afternoon was taken up by non-contract demands and complaints by BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons.

He again insisted that television cameras be allowed into Cathedral Hall and that all 19 members of his negotiating team be paid -- despite a second ruling yesterday morning by the Board to limit the number of paid union members on its team to seven.

Mr. Simmons again complained he was at a disadvantage without his entire negotiating team at his side.

"The Board has made it impossible for me to represent all 3,000-plus members of the Union in these hearings,'' he said, adding the ban on the electronic media was "foolish.'' The only new issue Mr. Simmons raised was that the Board and HEB should pick the seven people to be on his negotiating team.

"We are not in the game of dividing our panel,'' he said. However, HEB lawyer Mr. Steven Shawe called the request "ridiculous'' and refused to agree to it.

After a meeting behind closed doors with his four assessors, Board chairman Professor Ralph Haughton ruled hoteliers must be ordered to release all members of the BIU negotiating team to attend a meeting at BIU headquarters this morning in order for the seven members to be selected by Mr. Simmons and his executive officers.

Since the hearings began at the start of last month -- they were adjourned for two weeks resuming last Monday -- only two of the HEB's proposed five to six witnesses have testified.

The BIU is not expected to begin its case until August because the hearings are to be adjourned a second time tomorrow.

Apart from extra weeks of vacation and sick pay, the BIU is seeking a wage increase of more than the five percent recommended in the Hobgood Award, which was implemented by hoteliers last year, but not accepted by unionised hotel workers.