Unionised workers at a fast food restaurant have won their right to take a dispute over pay and conditions to an independent tribunal.But, last night, both sides in the stand-off were claiming victory after Chief Justice Ian Kawaley ruled that any arbitration talks between KFC Bermuda and the Bermuda Industrial Union should not be binding.The dispute made headlines last year when KFC managers opted out of the firm’s three-year-old collective bargaining agreement it had with employees. The Bermuda Industrial Union condemned that decision, arguing that the contract should remain in place until a new settlement was thrashed out.Then-Economy and Trade Minister Patrice Minors eventually referred the matter to arbitration in May 2012, after BIU members had marched on the premises and called for customers to boycott the business.At a hearing last month, lawyers for KFC tried to block that development, arguing that, as a private company, management had a right to “negotiate freely” with staff without interference from an outside tribunal. It also argued that the Minister was wrong to refer the matter to arbitration in the first place because it was not an essential industry and therefore any labour dispute was not an issue of national importance.In his ruling released this afternoon, Chief Justice Kawaley said that a tribunal “is the appropriate forum for the precise parameters of the issues to be determined to be worked out.”However, he added that the tribunal should not be allowed “draconian powers” dictating how KFC should run its operation.“It [the tribunal] is empowered to determine existing and past disputes but cannot lawfully make binding determinations which have the effect of imposing a new bargain on the parties as regards future terms and conditions,” Chief Justice Kawaley ruled.“However, the tribunal can no doubt encourage the parties to resolve disputes about future contractual terms and can probably make non-binding recommendations in this regard.”