insisting that Government first settle its gratuities dispute with hoteliers.

The review by the Labour Advisory Council aims to make the 1991 Labour Relations Act and last year's Trades Disputes Act more effective.

But union leader Mr. Ottiwell Simmons is holding up its work saying the Labour Minister must first settle the union's festering gratuities dispute with hotels.

Mr. Simmons remains unhappy that an Essential Industries Board ruling on BIU-hotels contract issues relieved hotels from paying any gratuities to workers for the year 1992.

Sources this week told The Royal Gazette that the union had been told to take its dispute to court if it was unhappy with the settlement.

But Mr. Simmons says the Minister has the power to settle the dispute.

"The Minister is behaving like he doesn't know what to do,'' he said.

"He's got all that legislation, yet this dispute rumbles on and on. The HEB (Hotel Employers of Bermuda) are breaking the law.'' Sources say the Labour Advisory Council -- a Government board made up of employers and workers representatives -- is the vehicle Mr. Pearman wants to use to review labour legislation.

His plan is to rationalise or consolidate separate pieces of legislation designed to conclusively resolve labour disputes.

But that review has been stalled by the BIU.

Mr. Pearman said he was using the Council to bring the union and hoteliers together. However, it appears that effort was imposed on the Council by Mr.

Simmons' stance on the gratuities issue.

"We've been able to get them to discuss the issue as they see them with other members of the Council trying to help them find solutions,'' the Minister said of last week's Council meeting.

One participant at the meeting said the discussion amounted to one long argument between Mr. Simmons and the HEB's Mr. John Harvey.

Sources say there has been no indication whatsoever the two sides will come to terms on the issue. The HEB is standing by the Haughton Award which ruled on new contract terms affecting wages, pensions and other provisions and its 1991-1994 term.

But the union has rejected the Award saying Professor Ronald Haughton made a mistake in not requiring the hotels to pay workers for gratuities in 1992.

Mr. Pearman said he was reluctant to resort to third party intervention in the dispute.

The Minister's reluctance may in part stem from last week's Court of Appeal ruling on the BIU-Pink Beach dispute. In it, the court said the Minister cannot refer a dispute to labour tribunals if an earlier tribunal has already ruled on it.

Sending the gratuities row to the Trades Disputes Board could be seen as contradicting Professor Haughton's Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board.

If the Minister does not send the dispute to the Trades Disputes Board, hoteliers believe there will be no movement to a new BIU-HEB contract until at least next spring.

"It's up to Otti to take it to court or to a strike or to petition the Minister,'' one hotelier said.

"For the hotels, it makes no difference. We agree with the Haughton Award.

The actual physical impact on hotels is negligible. In terms of operations, the workers are getting benefits and pay at Haughton Award rates.

"Things are carrying on as normal. That's why Otti is having trouble raising the temperature on this thing. That's why he's hitting the Minister in the Council. He has no other avenue.''