by WENDY BURKE

TALKS to break the stalemate between Sandy Lane Hotel and the Barbados Workers' Union (BWU) and The Royal Shop and the union, could begin this week.

Retired Justice Leroy Inniss who heads the committee set up by the Ministry of Labour to deal with the impasse between the two businesses and the union, had been out of the island and has now returned.

General secretary of the BWU, Sir Roy Trotman, told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday he was informed through a letter from the minister Senator Arni Walters on Friday that Inniss had returned and the talks would now continue.

On February 2, The Royal Shop dismissed 12 workers who walked out in support of a colleague who was fired after refusing to be transferred to the store's Bridgetown Port branch.

Was fired

And on February 18, Sandy Lane staffers who walked off the job in support of a colleague who was taken away by police after money was reported missing were also fired.

Sir Roy threatened a national strike if both sets of workers were not rehired. Since then all talks between and among the various stakeholders have broken down.

"Hopefully everybody is in Barbados now and they ought to be able to have a meeting very early in the new week," Sir Roy said. He was speaking to the SUN in Heroes Square where he, along with others, was participating in an event to mark the end of National Week For Service Excellence.

"Once they are able to meet it shouldn't take long for them to meet the parties and to give the minister the benefit of their conclusions," he said.

He said there was a commitment on all sides not to discuss the particulars of the issues, so he could not give information on any options which the BWU
might be considering.

Sir Roy also criticised what he called, "armchair experts" who were "springing up all over the place".

Workers' rights

He was responding to a question about social commentators who have, over the past two weeks, said in essence, that the union had no legal ground to support its stand in either matter, after the threatened national strike.

Sir Roy said he wanted the union's critics to know that there was legislation to support workers' rights.

"Most of them are black people, and one of them sets himself out to be a dog and the union is his tail, and that we are trying to wag him. Part of our problem is that he has been trying to dismiss his workers for joining the union.

"When we try to fight for the rights of workers, their particular slant is that we should give them special privileges because they are black and we don't believe in that because justice doesn't have any colour in the same way that justice doesn't have any race," said Sir Roy.

The BWU general secretary said he also wanted to state clearly this fight between the union and The Royal Shop was not an issue of race.

"We have too much of the race struggle in Trinidad and Guyana, we don't need them in Barbados," Sir Roy said.