A story in yesterday's newspaper on an upcoming Grotto Bay Hotel disputes board hearing should have clearly identified a speaker who said the situation showed how much the union and the hotel did not respect the board. The speaker was National Liberal Party leader Mr. Gilbert Darrell.

Grotto Bay Hotel's controversial decision to sever longtime ties with the Bermuda Industrial Union and implement its own workers contract will be probed this autumn.

The terms of reference for a Government board set to deal with the dispute in September have been drafted, it was learned.

And Grotto Bay secretary Mr. Charles Vaucrosson said last night management would "in all probability'' be attending the hearing along with the BIU.

But he added: "It looks like the union is trying to get recognition via the back door and not in accordance with the Trade Union Act.'' Meanwhile, chairman of the now defunct parliamentary joint select committee on Labour Relations, Mr. Gilbert Darrell MP, knocked the two Government disputes boards. They were "not the answer'', he said.

The Trade Disputes Board has been asked to look into the terms and conditions of employment at the hotel with a view to settling the dispute, it is understood.

BIU president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons MP said yesterday he assumed that meant determining whether or not workers should get union representation back.

He added they had been working under "second-rate management'' since former general manager Mr. George Robinson left the hotel in spring. No one had been hired to replace him.

In February, Government's Essential Industries Disputes Settlement Board upheld Grotto Bay management's right to raise workers' base pay and end the mandatory tipping system in January of 1991.

When management made the move, there was no BIU collective agreement in place for it to break, the board ruled.

Since then, there has been a move among workers to get the BIU back.

Their efforts came to a head earlier this summer when dozens of employees walked off the job, demanding union representation. They picketed outside the hotel while it was enjoying near-full occupancy.

The hotel threatened to fire them, with acting manager Mr. Clyde Darrell insisting: "We're not a union property.'' The striking workers agreed to go back to work and let another board, the Trade Disputes Board, settle the row.

But Mr. Darrell said the Grotto Bay situation clearly showed the disrespect both the union and management had for the Government disputes boards.

He said the joint select committee had not met since it gave its interim report to Parliament in the last session.

The report, with which Mr. Darrell disagreed, recommended the Labour Advisory Council continue to deal with worker-management discord.

"They have not done anything to solve the labour situation in Bermuda all these years,'' he said.

Mr. Darrell said he had not moved that the committee continue to meet because of a possibility of an election before the next sitting of the House of Assembly.

If an election was not called by November, he would ask that the committee be revived. He said the Labour Ministry had promised the committee some new labour legislation to consider.