dismissed from their hotel jobs should not go before the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board because of an unreasonable delay.

However, in the case of the other four the court has decided not to intervene leaving it to the Board to resolve.

The case was originally heard before Pusine Judge Richard Ground last August.

It involved five persons: MacDonald (Mackie) Simmons, William Bassett, Dennis Lottimore, Ervin Bean and Jermaine Butterfield.

Of these Mr. Simmons' matter -- he was dismissed from the Southampton Princess in late 1990 or 1991 -- was the oldest.

The others were fired between 1993 and 1994. During arguments at the civil trial, Jai Pachai, lawyer for the workers' former employers -- the Sonesta Beach Hotel, Southampton Princess, Marriott Castle Harbour Resort and the Belmont Hotel -- made two assertions.

He argued that the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs did not have the power in law to refer the matter of the five sacked employees to compulsory arbitration.

And he urged the court that even if the Minister did have this power, there had been too much delay.

In his written judgment, Mr. Justice Ground agreed that the lapse of time in Mr. Simmons' case was excessive.

"If the matter was to have been referred to the Board that should have been done back in 1991,'' he wrote. "I have no real explanation why it has not been pursued in the interim.'' However, Mr. Justice Ground stopped short of placing the blame for the delay on the Minister.

Instead he said: "I prefer to put it on the footing that when the complainants (the Bermuda Industrial Union acting for Mr. Simmons) have sat on their remedies for so long, the dispute no longer in fact exists and that it would be unreasonable of the Minister to conclude that it does.

"I therefore quash the reference in that instance.'' But Mr. Justice Ground said that in the case of the other four persons whose disputes were not as old as Mr. Simmons'-- they began around 1993 and 1994 -- he said the Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board was the best vehicle for their resolution.