by TRACY MOORE

MUM'S THE WORD on the mediation talks among Government, Barbados Workers' Union (BWU) and the managements of The Royal Shop and Sandy Lane.

BWU general secretary Sir Roy Trotman said yesterday, during a break at the 2008 Week Of Excellence conference at Frank Collymore Hall, that all parties decided not to speak publicly on the matter until it was resolved.

Last week, three undisclosed mediators were chosen to meet with the parties in an attempt to bring the almost month-long dispute to rest.

Averted

This came on the heels of a threatened national strike last Wednesday which was averted by the last-minute intervention of Prime Minister David Thompson.

At the time, Sir Roy said it was "a deferral to allow the Government to be able to use its office in the interest of all of the country as a whole" after failed discussions two weeks prior with both The Royal Shop, a Bridgetown jewellery store, and Sandy Lane Hotel, St James.

The companies fired a total of 29 workers who took industrial action in a show of support for two colleagues.

Refused to work

At The Royal Shop on February 1, one employee was fired after she refused to work at the Port location as instructed. Eleven of her colleagues who stopped work in solidarity were also fired.

Five days later, 18 workers walked off the job at Sandy Lane in protest against the hotel's handling of a reported case of money missing from a guest's room. Seventeen of them were fired. The employee at the centre of the dispute is on sick leave.

Talks with the parties reached a stalemate after meetings with the Labour Office, and last week under the chairmanship of Minister of Labour, Senator Arni Walters, talks ended without agreement.