The executive chef of controversy-plagued hotel Coco Reef has resigned citing ineffective leadership at the resort.

And Stefan Weser claims the hotel has refused to pay his last paycheque and cut off his health insurance nearly a month before his official resignation date.

But new Coco Reef director Robin Gilbert said that, as far as the hotel was concerned, Mr. Weser had received all the pay due to him ? though he admitted he did not know about the health insurance issue.

After months of controversy and repeated battles with the BIU over staff issues, and with no faith in Mr. Gilbert?s leadership, Mr. Weser said he had decided enough was enough. On February 28, he said, he handed in his resignation, giving the hotel a month?s notice.

He also informed Mr. Gilbert that instead of working right up to March 31 and receiving pay for that work as well as for several weeks worth of vacation and time in lieu, he would be taking those vacation days starting on March 4 ? and that he would ?give? the hotel his days in lieu, demanding no pay for them. ?I just want out,? he said he told Mr. Gilbert.

Mr. Weser was still a Coco Reef employee until March 31 and therefore should have been covered by the hotel?s health insurance until that date. To his alarm his health insurance was cut off on March 5. A memo was sent to all suppliers by Coco Reef finance director Kate Hall on March 4 declaring that Mr. Weser had resigned effective of that date, despite the fact that he was technically on vacation at the time, and was still an employee of the hotel until March 31.

Having taken a trip overseas, Mr. Weser arrived back on the Island on March 24, he said. Though colleagues told him they had received their paycheques in that time, when Mr. Weber checked his bank account, he realised he had not been paid his vacation pay.

On March 28 he spoke with Ms Wall, who informed him she was ?not authorised? to pay him. When Mr. Gilbert said he, also, was not authorised to pay the former executive chef, Mr. Weser claimed: ?I said, ?Robin, what are you authorised to do? You failed your part of the deal?.?

Efforts to save money at the hotel may lie at the root of the hotel?s refusal to pay Mr. Weser, the former executive chef said. His resignation came about after Mr. Gilbert informed him that the hotel would be hiring no new staff, despite Mr. Weser?s request for an administrator to co-ordinate large events such as weddings at the hotel to be hired, he said.

With Mr. Weser taking on that role for the past several months, he warned Mr. Gilbert that, as Coco Reef moves into the summer months, his place will be in the kitchen, where he said chefs are already overworked and tired.

Mr. Gilbert said the hotel was in fact hiring staff for the kitchen and to fill all other positions which are vacant, adding that events have taken place since Mr. Weser?s resignation which the former chef has not been made privy too.

?The hotel will be up to strength when we need it,? he said.

Others in the hotel have plenty of the necessary event planning experience, he added.

?I?ve been doing event planning and weddings for longer than he?s been alive ... We are capable of operating.?

As for the suggestion that the hotel was in financial trouble, Mr. Gilbert said that statement was completely unfounded. ?Like any business, we are trying to be as financially diligent as possible, but we are in no danger of getting into financial difficulty,? he said. Regarding Mr. Weser?s pay, Mr. Gilbert said that due to confidentiality issues there was a limit as to what he could say about salary. He did say, however, that by the hotel?s reckoning Mr. Weser has been paid for all the vacation days he is entitled to.