CASINOS
IN COURT:
Testimony heard in Wynn case
Commissioner will hear from dealers who
want tip-sharing policy stopped
By ARNOLD
M. KNIGHTLY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Jul. 08, 2009 Copyright © Las
Vegas Review-Journal
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Wynn Las Vegas dealer Daniel Baldonado has been waiting for this day for nearly three years. After a journey through the Nevada court system that ended last year, Baldonado's claim against the hotel-casino for a new tip pooling policy he believes breaks state law is before the state labor commissioner. "It's finally come and we just want to get this over with, get on with our lives and hopefully protect tip earners of the state," he said during a break in the |
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hearing that began Tuesday. Wynn
Las Vegas dealers are asking state Labor
Commissioner Michael Tanchek to find the
resort's tip pooling policy illegal under state
law and award $35 million in back pay and
penalties to nearly 500 dealers.
Attorneys for Wynn maintain the policy follows
state law by sharing the dealers' tips with
other front-line employees, similar to the
relationship between busboys, bartenders and
waiters in a restaurant.
Tanchek plans to hear arguments through Thursday
at the Sawyer Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.
Tanchek said if all the testimony is not
completed by then, the hearing will reconvene in
August. He said Monday he hopes to have a
decision by October.
The case was sent back to Tanchek by the Nevada
Supreme Court, which said in October that the
Labor Commission is the proper place to hear
state labor law complaints.
Attorneys for Baldonado and fellow Wynn dealer
Joseph Cesarz filed a class action lawsuit in
2006 to end the tip-pooling program implemented
at the Strip casino.
The high court's decision upheld a lower court
ruling in favor of Wynn Las Vegas.
Clark County District Judge Douglas Herndon
dismissed the lawsuit in late 2006. That
decision was appealed and the Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the matter in April
2008.
Unlike most cases his office deals with, Tanchek
said there is little disagreement on the facts
of what happened in this case.
"The real problem is how should what happened be
interpreted in light of the statute," he said.
Wynn attorney Greg Kamer said
Tuesday that the state law
per-
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mits the type of tip policy implemented by the resort. The resort's officials said the workers who are sharing in the tips, called casino service team leads, are part of the resort's front-line customer service team. Wynn Resorts changed its tip policy to correct the widening disparity between wages the dealers make and what the other people they work with in the casino pit were making. Casino executives said at the time the new policy was introduced that the casino's dealers were earning about $100,000 annually in salary and tips. The new tip-pooling policy meant an |
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average pay reduction of about
20 percent. The dealers' attorney's
argued that Wynn's policy violates
Nevada state law by allowing management
to share in the tip pool.
Lawrence Litman, attorney for Wynn
dealer Meghan Smith, in opening
statements said that new team leads are
a combination of what were formerly the
floor supervisors and pit bosses, two
supervisory positions.
"The Wynn casino has in fact benefited
off the financial backs of the dealers
for three years now for over $20 million
by illegally taking the new team lead
position out of the pool rather than
from their own corporate resources and
income," Litman said.
Attorneys for the dealers plan to call
24 witnesses, and Wynn Las Vegas has
turned in a list of four witnesses it
plans to call.
The Wynn list includes Nevada Restaurant
Association Chairman John Hinchliffe,
and Steve Willett, assistant games
manager at Don Laughlin's Riverside
Resort in Laughlin.
Kamer said that property has had a
tip-pooling policy similar to the Wynn's
for more than 40 years.
Baldonado said the Riverside's policies
are not relevant because the dealers
there, apparently, agreed to the policy
and never filed a wage claim.
Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at
aknightly@reviewjournal.com or
702-477-3893. [up]