ruled yesterday.

The decision of the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board in the longstanding row was welcomed by Hotel Employers of Bermuda executive director Mr. John Harvey.

"It's not a question of being pleased,'' Mr. Harvey told The Royal Gazette .

"It's a question of putting this thing behind us and moving on.'' Bermuda Industrial Union president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP said he received the decision yesterday, but left it sealed in an envelope when he went home last night.

He would discuss the award at a meeting with the BIU's hotel division today, he said. "I'm not going to make any comment until I read it.'' It was the third time the Board had been asked to settle the gratutities dispute between the HEB and the BIU.

Mr. Harvey said the latest board -- made up of chairman Mr. Arnold Zack amd members the Hon. Albert Jackson and Mr. Gordon Asbury -- came to the same conclusion as the two previous boards. The latest decision "clears up all the ambiguities,'' he said.

The Board was asked to rule on whether the HEB had already been ordered to hand over to workers tips increases for the period from February 25, 1992 to February 24, 1993.

At the hearing, the BIU objected to the terms of reference and said it reserved the right to reject the decision. The BIU maintained all gratuity increases paid from February of 1992 onwards should be paid to the workers, plus seven percent interest.

In its ruling, the Board said the hotels were entitled to keep the increased tips for 1992. And it said the earlier two boards -- which reported on January 14, 1993 and August 5, 1993 respectively -- said the same thing.

"There has to be a point where these repetitive appeals come to an end,'' the ruling said.

"We are of the unanimous view that the purpose of the statute is to achieve final and binding awards in resolution of industrial disputes and believe that all concerned are best served by embracing that 5th August, 1993 award as our own.

"That board wrestled with the issues before it, entertaining protests and ultimately reconfirming its original award. We find no grounds for substituting our judgment...'' The board endorsed the two earlier awards, "denying increased gratuity payments for the year 1992-93''.

It found that the earlier Haughton Award had given the hotel workers no increased gratuity payments for 1992, but increases of 25 cents for each of 1993 and 1994.

"Even though the union may have failed to secure its goal for increased gratuities during the current agreement, its expiration date is less than a year away and it will soon have the opportunity and forum for negotiating such issues for inclusion in the successor agreement.'' Mr. Harvey said he expected the BIU to "adhere'' to the award. "When one is concentrating on things like this, you're neglecting other parts of the operation,'' he said. "That's not productive at all.

"It took a long, long time to get this final decision.'' On another matter, the board ruled that while it could not force HEB member hotels to each sign the collective agreement, they were bound by the contract whether they signed or not.

"The Bermuda Industrial Union has access to the courts under the statute to compel adherence to that contractual agreement,'' it said.

While implementing the other terms of the contract, 13 HEB hotels had refused to sign the collective agreement, citing concerns that under the Labour Relations Amendment Act 1991 they would then be perpetually bound to the union.