Bus workers on Monday will join ferry employees in an overtime ban.

Unless the wage issue is resolved, the action could put a damper on the Cup Match holiday.

Bermuda Public Transportation deputy director Dan Simmons yesterday revealed that workers had notified officials that they would take part in an overtime ban this Monday.

Ferry workers notified Marine and Ports last Monday evening that they would be launching an over-time ban to protest slow wage negotiations.

At issue is the workers displeasure over the pace at which wage negotiations were proceeding.

Ferry and bus workers are just one of several Government department in the process of negotiating their wages. They have been without a wage agreement since December 1996.

Monday's industrial bus action will affect charter sightseeing tours, Mr.

Simmons predicted.

"It will affect our charter sightseeing tours but there should be minimal effect to the regular bus routes.'' And he admitted that if the actions continued, Cup Match revellers would be stumped.

"If it goes on it will affect Cup Match service,'' Mr. Simmons said. "We'll just have to wait and see.'' He said workers were protesting the same wage issues that irritated ferry employees this week.

"I think they are trying to hurry the negotiations,'' he added.

Union and Government officials will meet again on Monday to try to hammer out an agreement.

The wage controversy dated back to October 1996 when the Bermuda Industrial Union notified the Government that the third year wage for all Government workers, under their collective agreement, was due to be negotiated.

But negotiations did not begin until this January and the wage agreement between Government and the workers expired in December last year.

Workers were unhappy with the slow process and at a recent meeting, Government divisions decided to exercise their "democratic right'' to decline over time work.

Bermuda Industrial Union first vice president Chris Furbert yesterday said he could not comment on the bus workers' industrial action, but did admit that the union knew that they had served notice on officials.

Mr. Furbert told The Royal Gazette that a divisional meeting would be held on Tuesday and hoped that Government would produce an offer for the workers to vote on.

"It is a positive sign that we are meeting on Monday, three days before Cup Match,'' Mr. Furbert said. "We want to get this resolved.

"We have called a divisional meeting on Tuesday, if the Government brings an offer on Monday, we will go to them on Tuesday with it. They could vote on it and if it is passed it will be over with before Cup Match.'' Transport Minister Wayne Furbert yesterday expressed concern over the industrial action.

"I was sorry to hear that the overtime ban was put in place since it will not only affect our tourists but locals as well,'' he said. "Like the Minister of Tourism said, we are trying to get our visitor figures up and people do not want to come to a place where they can't get around.

On Thursday, Marine and Ports Minister David Dodwell announced that a special Cup Match Ferry would be running -- if the dispute had been resolved.

"Assuming that the dispute between the Government and the Bermuda Industrial Union has been resolved and the overtime ban of Marine and Ports' staff has been lifted, the department of Marine and Ports are offering, in addition to the regular ferry service, a special Cup match ferry both Thursday and Friday,'' Mr. Dodwell had said.

If the dispute is resolved, locals will be able to sail through the holiday.

The usual summer East/West service between Dockyard and St. George's will be extended into the evening. The ferry will return to St. George's to pick up commuters and depart for Dockyard at 8 p.m., arriving in the West End around 9.15 p.m.

Mr. Dodwell said the Friday ferry would leave Dockyard at 7.45 a.m. and sail directly to St. George's where it will remain all day. It will cruise back to Dockyard at approximately 8.30 p.m.

The Government usually run an East/West ferry during the summer every Wednesday and Thursday. But on Wednesday and Thursday the service had to be cancelled.

The regular Paget/Warwick and Somerset/Dockyard ferries will be operating on a Saturday schedule over the Cup Match holiday, if the dispute is resolved.

AFTERNOON GRIND -- An Airport bound woman (above) pulls her luggage past a line of traffic on the Causeway yesterday afternoon, while at the left motorists fume at the snarl-ups. East End traffic ground to a halt when Longbird Bridge did not close properly after opening to allow marine traffic through at 3 pm. Works and Engineering and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) staff went to the scene and traffic flow returned to normal by 4 p.m.

Photos by Hamish Shorto and Tony Cordeiro TRANSPORTATION TRA