Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board, chaired by Professor Ronald Haughton.

They were adjourned in June for two months due to a board member and the Hotel Employers of Bermuda side having other commitments.

The adjournment was the second since the talks got underway in early May.

Little progress has been made thus far with the key issue of wages yet to be argued.

In June the talks were marred by non-contract arguments which sent the disputes board's members behind closed doors on a number of occasions to make rulings on demands by the two sides.

BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons demanded several times that all 19 members of the union's negotiating team be paid to attend the hearings, and that the board roll back its ruling that barred television cameras and tape recorders from the hearings.

The HEB still has some six witnesses to testify, while the Bermuda Industrial Union has not begun its case.

HEB president Mr. Dennis Tucker testified that the union's demands were "astronomical'' and did not take into account the gloomy economic climate the Island is facing.

He claimed unionised hotel workers wanted an extra week of paid vacation, a 17-27 percent increase in hotels' contributions to pensions and employers to nearly triple their weekly lay-off payment.