management to rehire a worker fired for fighting on the job.

The protest was sparked by the automatic dismissal of nine-year Sonesta employee Rafat Hamid of Cairo, Egypt.

Mr. Hamid told The Royal Gazette that he became involved in a fight with kitchen porter Mervin Cross on Sunday night.

The 30-year-old admitted flipping a plate of food onto Mr. Cross after the Bermudian, who had been working at the hotel for three months, insulted him.

However, the dispute quickly escalated.

"He stuck a fork in my neck,'' Mr. Hamid said, showing a scar. "And then one of the people there broke it up.'' Both employees were fired the next day. But Mr. Hamid said he had no idea his co-workers were planning the protest.

"They just came to my room this morning and told me to come outside,'' the 30-year-old said.

By 9.30 a.m. some 50 employees including housekeepers, engineers, waiters and waitresses, and bellmen had gathered in the parking lot outside the hotel's main entrance.

Sonesta assistant chief shop steward Raymond Russell Jr. was outspoken.

"Basically the main reason we're protesting is that Sonesta has a policy that after any and every altercation for anything, both the employees are terminated,'' said Mr. Russell.

"Two employees had a minor incident and they terminated both employees, so Sonesta as a team are in support of one of our long-term employees who has been here about nine years.

"He has a clean record across the board and I can't see any reason why, if you look at somebody's record, we should end up in this situation,'' he continued.

"We want to get some movement on the policy because it's the policy that's bad.'' Patrick Walker, shop steward for the engineering department, agreed.

"If somebody is attacking you, what are you to do? Stand there and take the abuse? You have to be able to defend yourself,'' said Mr. Walker.

Mr. Russell also said he had been frustrated by previous attempts to follow grievance procedures under similar circumstances.

"I went through a grievance procedure,'' he recalled. "It was about nine months long and in the end Sonesta admittedly was wrong and so they had to compensate the young lady.

"I'm not trying to go back to nine months, another nine months and the same old thing. The staff has decided. I've come in support of my staff.

"We have to make a stand.'' Hotel rehires worker after staff walk out Less than an hour after the walkout, Sonesta's general manager and vice-president Dennis Tucker told the crowd Mr. Hamid had been reinstated.

And the workers immediately cheered, clapped, and shouted "Victory'' and "United we stand''.

Mr. Hamid cried tears of happiness as he was hugged and led away by his supporters.

However, in a later interview Mr. Tucker said he regretted the spontaneous industrial action.

"I think that the protest was most unfortunate, especially since we do have a grievance procedure in place to deal with these circumstances,'' he said.

"But we have been able to resolve it and everyone's back to work.

"We've had a long-standing policy that any staff member that gets involved in an altercation has an automatic dismissal, the staff are very much aware of this.

"We will continue to investigate the circumstances of this particular situation and we will continue to work with the union in trying to find a common ground to resolve the issue.'' Mr. Tucker said he was willing to discuss the issue further with shop stewards.

But a passerby and former hotel worker, who asked not to be identified, condemned the workers' actions.

"One day they're going to walk off the job and it'll be history,'' he said.

"The staff should not just be walking out over a personal grievance.

"Everywhere else in the world it goes to arbitration.''