Wynn
tip debate continues
In testimony, dealers
argue that policy breaks state labor
laws
Aug.
19, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Dividing dealers' tips only among dealers was an industry standard until Wynn Las Vegas changed its policy to include table-game supervisors, a Wynn dealer testified Tuesday before the state labor commissioner.
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The dealer, Josephine Tang, who was a dealer at the Luxor, the former Aladdin, and the Gold Coast before joining Wynn in April 2005, was unable to say definitively during testimony how much her pay has declined since the new policy widening the tip pool to include floor supervisors, called casino service team leads, was implemented nearly three years ago. The administrative hearing before Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek that |
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resumed Tuesday is a continuation of arguments that began in early July on wage claims challenging the tip-pooling policy. Dealers believe the policy breaks state labor law. |
Wynn Las
Vegas dealers are asking 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.
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Tang is among a group of dealers who filed wage claims with the labor commissioner in the months following the Sept. 1, 2006, implementation of the Wynn tip-pooling policy. Tang spent approximately an hour answering questions from Tanchek, attorneys from the Wynn and the dealers' attorneys. Dealer and outspoken opponent of the policy Daniel Baldonado was also scheduled to testify Tuesday. Tanchek plans to hear arguments through Friday at the Sawyer Building, 555 E. Washington Ave. The commissioner said Tuesday |
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that if all the testimony is not completed by then, another hearing will have to be scheduled. |
If testimony
is completed this week, Tanchek said he
expects to issue a ruling by the end of
October. Any ruling will likely be
appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Baldonado and Tang are also members of a
negotiating committee for Las Vegas
Dealers Local 721 trying to work and
contract with the union.
There have been 37 negotiating sessions
since May 2007, when dealers voted by
nearly a 3-to-1 margin in favor of
representation from the union.
Tang and Baldonado are also plaintiffs
in a new lawsuit filed July 9 in U.S.
District Court of Nevada in Las Vegas
claiming the tip sharing policy violates
federal labor laws.
A motion to dismiss was filed Aug. 8 by
the resort's attorneys. No hearing dates
have been set.
The dealers are represented by much of
the legal team that has represented them
through the state Supreme Court case.
Wynn Las Vegas, however, hired
Washington D.C.-based Eugene Scalia, son
of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia.
Eugene Scalia formerly was appointed by
President George W. Bush the Solicitor
of the Department of Labor in 2002.
He is a partner in the law firm Gibson,
Dunn & Crutcher, which represented Bush
in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in
the Florida recount case in 2000.
Eugene Scalia wasn't involved in that
case.
Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at
aknightly@reviewjournal.com or
702-477-3893. [up]