Bermuda Broadcasting Company staff were due to return to work this morning, ending a four-day blackout.

Local programming was expected to resume on television channels ZFB and ZBM plus radio stations Power 95, FM89 and FM105 as a tentative agreement was accepted by staff and management.

Negotiations are ongoing to end the dispute but in the interim it is understood management have met the workers' demands for three laid-off employees to be reinstated.

On the workers' side however, they have conceded to a review to reduce the hours and pay of some departments.

A BBC source said: "It's not a done deal yet but in the meantime we're going back to work. Negotiations are going on today between the union and Mr. Perry."

The truce ends a deadlock between BBC board chairman Fernance Perry and the staff. Both parties refused to back down in the row over three employees being laid-off for four months on a day's notice.

Unionised staff staged a walkout at 5 p.m. last Thursday, plunging the station into a blackout. Up to 40 full and part-time staff refused to return to work until Mr. Perry reinstated a receptionist, messenger and programme manager Darlene Ming's assistant.

They also protested a failure by management to pay them the second part of their Arbitration Award last month, amounting to some $60,000 in back pay.

Mr. Perry however, said the station was in financial difficulty and he had to cut costs to keep it afloat. He told The Royal Gazette he had to borrow $110,000 last week just to make up employees' wages.

He said on Sunday: "The company needs financial help and without the employees, the company is going nowhere.

"The employees are valuable but they have to go the extra mile to help a financially ailing company."

Yesterday, the Labour Department intervened to help break up the deadlock, hosting a meeting between Mr. Perry, Bermuda Industrial Union and Bermuda Employers Council representatives.

The BBC source said as a result, staff have decided to return to work while a more formal agreement is finalised.

"They reached a compromise and so we will be back to work tomorrow," he said last night.

"The three employees will be reinstated, however there are conditions. Mr. Perry informed us that he needs some sort of concession from the staff.

"He has put forward a number of suggestions and will receive a reply from us via Mr. (Chris) Furbert (BIU president). We may have to concede some pay that was due to us and Mr. Perry wants to reduce the working hours of certain departments.

"There will also be an intermediate person from the Labour Department assigned to work between the BBC management and the unionised employees, who will report back to Government.

"But the important part is we are back to work. Programming should resume first thing tomorrow morning."

The source said the mood among employees was "bittersweet".

"On the one hand we are very happy and glad to see the three workers are back to work but on the other hand there is some feeling the overall working conditions at the BBC haven't been addressed yet. Some staff are worried the conditions will not improve. The situation the last few days has been frustrating for all of us. It's been a combination of years of what we see as mismanagement and disrespect towards the workers."