us back our money or face industrial action.

They also threatened legal action to win back about $500,000 they claim they are owed.

The unionised employees say the money is for gratuities they failed to get in 1992. And they have put together a petition with more than 1,000 signatures.

Yesterday Bermuda Industrial Union president Mr. Ottiwell Simmons accused hotel chief Mr. John Harvey and Labour Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman of ignoring it.

He said Mr. Harvey, executive officer of the Hotel Employers of Bermuda, had refused to receive the petition.

And he stated the union had wanted to hand a copy of the petition to Mr.

Pearman -- but the Minister had shown "discourtesy'' by not answering a letter. "The employers have taken our money,'' said Mr. Simmons.

Last night, however, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Pearman hit back hard.

Mr. Harvey, also Bermuda Hotel Association executive director, said Mr.

Simmons had been seeking a publicity stunt. He said the union leader wanted to hand the petition over as a public relations exercise. "I did not want to get involved in that.'' Mr. Harvey believed many workers had been "coerced'' into signing the petition.

Mr. Pearman said the petition had been targeted for the HEB. There was no reason for the Labour Ministry to receive it, he declared.

"Why should we receive someone else's petition? I told them, however, if they wanted to send me a copy then fair enough.'' News of the petition was revealed at a Press conference during a BIU meeting featuring shop stewards from the Island's hotels.

The conference was headed by Mr. Simmons, BIU general secretary Ms Molly Burgess, first vice president of the union's hotel division Mr. Derrick Burgess, Marriott's Castle Harbour shop steward Ms Anita Spencer, and union official Mr. Herbie Bascome.

Mr. Simmons said hotel workers wanted the gratuities row resolved.

He also urged employers to move towards signing a collective bargaining agreement.

It is now almost 12 months since American Professor Ronald Haughton delivered his award for hotels and the BIU.

The planned contract -- handed down after a hearing between both sides -- was to have started from 1991, and expired in February, 1995. But the award has not been signed.

The union claims Professor Haughton blundered on a key issue -- he did not force hotels to compensate workers for tips they failed to get in 1992.

For its part, the 13 small hotels in the Hotel Employers of Bermuda (HEB) have also objected.

They argue labour laws would bind them forever to the union if they put their signatures to the award. And they have called for Government to change the Labour Relations Act.

Yesterday Ms Spencer read out the petition.

"We, the undersigned, hereby petition the Hotel Employers of Bermuda and its 20 members mentioned in the Haughton Award dated January 14, 1993.

"We are claiming the gratuities that your hotel members collected during 1992 and onward, and failed to remit same to your tipped employees who are the legal owners of these monies.

"Failure on your part to promptly settle this matter will cause us to take the necessary legal and/or industrial action to recover our claimed gratuities.

"Also included must be a seven percent interest charge. Moreover, we will be forced to institute proceedings for damages and any other legal claims against the HEB to the fullest extent provided by the law.'' Mr. Pearman said Government had had several meetings to break the deadlock.

"They are part of an ongoing process. Government's role is to act as a facilitator.'' Mr. Harvey recently voiced little optimism about an imminent breakthrough.

He pointed out hoteliers had gone ahead and introduced the terms of Prof.

Haughton's award -- even though it had not been signed. And with the award within a year of expiring, the industry would have to look ahead.

"We need to get our energies working together harmoniously and constructively.''