KFC Bermuda appears set to fight the Economy Minister’s order that sent the fast food company’s collective bargaining agreement dispute with the Bermuda Industrial Union to arbitration.In a statement released to The Royal Gazette, KFC director Jason Benevides said: “KFC will continue to defend its legal rights. Should KFC be legally compelled to participate in a process of arbitration, then KFC will of course meet its legal obligation.”But Mr Benevides was quick to add: “To the extent that KFC’s legitimate business interests are threatened, then the company retains the right to take such legal actions as it deems appropriate.“As the Minister has yet to reveal the proposed terms of reference for the arbitration process she wishes to invoke, KFC is unable to offer any more specific comment in relation to how it will respond to the arbitration proceedings,” said Mr Benevides.The statement goes on to say the notice of the dispute published in the Official Gazette “makes it clear that the Minister has taken a view contrary to the legal advice KFC has received.”Mr Benevides said: “Likewise, KFC will continue to defend its legal rights.”Moving forward, he said it is company policy “to follow the law and abide by the contracts which it enters”. Where there is need for assistance interpreting the law or contract provisions, “it is KFC’s policy to seek qualified legal advice”.On that note Mr Benevides said: “KFC’s lawyers have advised that KFC properly terminated its contract with the BIU effective from 9 December 2011. Our lawyers have further advised that the matter of termination of the agreement is not one which the Minister of Economy is empowered to send to binding arbitration without KFC’s consent.”But on the flip side of the dispute, BIU President Chris Furbert held a different point of view. When asked if in his experience an employer has ever refused to go to the arbitration table, he said: “There have been isolated cases where an employer has refused to come to the arbitration process. Just know that the way how the arbitration process is done in Bermuda because collective bargaining agreements are not legally binding in a court of law, they can actually have a hearing without the employer being present.”When asked by The Royal Gazette what the penalty would be for refusing to attend, Mr Furbert replied: “The penalty is the arbitration proceeds without them, and the ruling would still be binding.But Mr Furbert added: “If the arbitration errs in law the employer could appeal on points of law, however they cannot appeal if the arbitration ruling was handed down in accordance with their terms of reference and if it did not err in law then its not subject to appeal.“I’m not going to get into this whole thing about what KFC is calling for, you need to get that clarification from them,” he added.When asked why he felt the Minister took more than two weeks to issue the order, Mr Furbert replied: “Once again, I try to understand what my role is. I am the leader of the BIU. I am not the leader of the Government. I am not a Cabinet Minister. So you might want to go ask the Minister why it took them so long to refer the matter to arbitration.”There was no response from the Minister by press time. The union was also criticised for calling the emergency meeting on Thursday which disrupted public transportation services while there were thousands of cruise ship passengers on the Island.“We had some of our members who went to work and I encourage the BIU membership not to say anything to those workers because even though we called for a meeting of the entire BIU membership, if someone chose to go to work it was okay with us,” said Mr Furbert.“If somebody chose to stay on and drive the bus, the ferry or what have you, we can’t penalise them for that. We understand it’s a decision that they made to stay in the workplace. When we were contacted by management about the possibility of the interruption of service, all we told them was if they want to have a few workers to stay to drive while the meeting was taking place we don’t have an issue with that.”