Union is to be tested before a Government disputes board.

Labour Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman yesterday concluded a dispute existed between the hotel and the union.

And he said it should be put before the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board.

Hotel spokesman Mr. John Jefferis last night said his property was bound by law to respect the Minister's decision, but added that "we do not have a relationship with the BIU.'' Mr. Pearman used his brief statement yesterday to refer another "dispute'' between Pink Beach Club and the union to the same board.

Pink Beach spokesman Mr. W.A. (Toppy) Cowen described the referral as a veiled attempt to get the board to overturn its own recent finding that the union's collective agreement with the hotel industry no longer existed.

Mr. Pearman later countered that a previous board decision did not necessarily have bearing on other disputes in the hotel industry.

"There seems to be a perception that this (board) is a court of law in which precedent-setting decisions are made that can be tied to other disputes,'' he said.

"But circumstances can be different from one situation to the next with no bearing on things whatsoever. That is our view.

"The tribunal will decide whether the issue (of the life of the collective bargaining agreement) has been decided before or not.'' Mr. Pearman said he concluded disputes existed at the two properties after his Ministry failed to mediate solutions.

The Elbow dispute, he said, centred on the hotel's move to stop automatic deductions of union and credit union dues from workers pay-cheques.

Mr. Pearman said he had been presented with a petition from a considerable number of Elbow workers asking for resumption of the so-called union check-off. The hotel, he said, expressed no intention of resuming the check-off.

Mr. Jefferis last night said the hotel would continue with its new worker-management deal, which includes profit-sharing.

He dismissed the BIU as a working partner. "Their thinking of good industrial relations is for a hotel to acquiesce to whatever they want, whatever their demands are, at any given time.

"What we want to do is get on making this hotel successful, developing a good relationship with the staff and having everybody share in the success.''