The Hamiltonian Hotel and Island Club has come under scrutiny from both the Bermuda Industrial Union and the Hotels Pension Fund for owing close to $1 million in unpaid pension and social insurance contributions.

BIU president Derrick Burgess said yesterday that according to their investigations, the Hamiltonian had not paid into the two funds for more than 20 years.

He said there were about a dozen employees who had never received their pensions or been able to claim from Social Insurance.

“They depend on this money once they retire and now they have nothing,” Mr. Burgess said.

What angered him even more, he said, was that the hotel claimed to have made an application to the Department of Tourism to sell some of their units in order to pay off the outstanding debts.

“But, when I called Dr. Ewart Brown, he said he knew nothing about this and no request was ever made,” Mr. Burgess said.

This was confirmed by the Ministry of Tourism last night.

Mr. Burgess said the hotel had also failed to remit union dues to BIU even though they were deducted from members' pay packets for many years.

“We understand they also owe thousands to the Department of Social Insurance,” he said.

Mr. Burgess said, according the last Auditor's Report ending July 31, 2003, Hamiltonian Hotel owed $210,233 to the contributor pension fund.

Mr. Burgess said the matter is now with the Attorney General.

The administrator of the Hotel Pension Fund, Calvin White, said he was working with several former employees in an effort to get their pensions, but was frustrated as the owners had made no effort to pay the outstanding funds or offer solutions to the problem.

CEO of the Pension Commission Peter Sousa was informed of the situation late yesterday afternoon and said a formal review would now be conducted.

“We will enter discussions with the owners to determine the exact amount that is outstanding and find out how they plan to pay it back.”

He said, depending on these discussions and if the owners did not want to cooperate, he would have no choice but to proceed with legal action.

When contacted, the spokesman at the Hamiltonian said the owners were abroad and refused to comment.