at Grotto Bay Beach Hotel.

Mr. Ottiwell Simmons, president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, yesterday hailed the Trades Disputes Tribunal decision as "a landmark.'' "The union is back at Grotto Bay,'' Mr. Simmons said at a news conference.

And other employers who broke with the BIU -- the Palm Reef Hotel, Mermaid Beach Club, Pink Beach Club, and Bermuda Bakery -- would have to fall into line, he said.

"Bad things can happen to naughty people.'' In a prepared statement, Grotto Bay resident manager Mr. Clyde Darrell said the hotel would abide by the agreement, but wanted "one or two ambiguities'' clarified first.

The hotel would seek the guidance of the Labour Minister, he said. It was understood the hotel did not plan to restore mandatory tipping until the clarifications were made.

Mr. Simmons said he believed the Attorney General could force Grotto Bay to obey the tribunal if necessary, but "we don't expect it to happen with a snap of a finger''.

On two other issues, the tribunal upheld the firing of Grotto Bay waiter Mr.

Glen Goater, but ordered fired waiter Mr. Junior Williams reinstated.

It was the third time a Government board was asked to determine whether a collective agreement existed at the hotel. Each decision has overturned the one before it.

First, an Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board chaired by Prof.

Ronald Haughton ruled that a contract with the BIU existed and continued when Grotto Bay withdrew from the Hotel Employers of Bermuda on June 25, 1991.

Mandatory tipping, which hotel management arbitrarily discontinued when it imposed a new contract, should be restored, Prof. Haughton said in March of 1992.

The hotel, which had withdrawn from the Haughton proceedings in February, dismissed the award as "erroneous,'' and refused to abide by it.

The BIU appealed to Government, and Labour and Home Affairs Minister the Hon.

Irving Pearman appointed a new panel of the EIDSB, this one chaired by lawyer Mr. Michael Mello QC.

In January, Mr. Mello's board ruled that there was no collective agreement in place at the hotel. Therefore, the introduction of the voluntary tipping system was not an unfair industrial practice.

The decision released yesterday was from the Trade Disputes Tribunal, a new Government body to settle labour disputes established under The Trade Disputes Act 1992.

Mr. Arnold Zack, who chaired the tribunal, said the Haughton Award should have ended the matter. "We are in the midst of the third bite of a rather overripe apple that has been the basis of review and third party intervention since 1990,'' the decision said.

"We believe strongly that the issues before us had been properly heard and resolved by Haughton.'' The tribunal, which held its hearings on September 1, 2, and 3, did not go into the details of the Haughton Award, but merely adopted its findings in the new award.

Under the award, the hotel is to resume deduction of union dues from workers' pay cheques, reinstate mandatory tipping, restore wages to the lower level that existed before the new tipping system was introduced, and restore all terms of the old contract.

While rejecting a BIU request that the hotel pay back dues that were not collected from workers' pay, the tribunal said that the hotel and union should make an arrangement to have the back dues collected from workers over a satisfactory time period.

On the dismissals, the tribunal said Mr. Goater, who was on probation at the time of his dismissal in July of 1993, had been properly warned about tardiness and other infractions, and his dismissal was justified.

But Mr. Williams, who was fired for absenteeism, never received a second written warning, as required, the tribunal said. He should be reinstated and reimbursed for lost earnings, but warned that another offence could lead to his dismissal.