Las Vegas Sun NewsCasino dealers’ union joins fight over Wynn tip-sharing policy
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3 September 2012
2 a.m.
Just in time for Labor Day, Nevada’s only casino dealers' union has joined the legal battle over whether Wynn Las Vegas can require dealers to share tips with supervisors.
The Transport Workers Union, which represents dealers at Wynn and Caesars Palace, joined the fray late last week.
In order to gain its contract at Wynn in 2010, the TWU had to accept tip sharing there. But the union says its new contract with Caesars Palace limits the ability of Caesars to require tip sharing, and the TWU now wants the Supreme Court to prohibit the sharing of dealers’ tips at Wynn, Caesars and everywhere else in Nevada.
''Were this court to not uphold the well-reasoned decision of the District Court that Wynn’s tip-pooling policy violated Nevada law, all the dealers in the state would feel the ramifications of that decision,'' a proposed TWU brief filed with the Supreme Court last week says. ''Other casino employers would institute programs similar to the one at Wynn, resulting in increased profits and pay to casinos and their upper management at the cost of reduced pay to dealers.''
Wynn, in the meantime, is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to strike down a 2011 decision by Clark County District Court Judge Kenneth Cory, who found the Wynn tip pool violates state law by providing a benefit to Wynn at the expense of dealers. The case was brought by a group of dealers, not by a union.
Wynn wants the court to reinstate a 2010 decision by Nevada’s labor commissioner upholding the tip pool. That ruling said tip pooling at Wynn is OK because the supervisors, boxmen and ''casino service team leads'' are an important part of the customer service experience that drives tipping by gamblers.
Steve Wynn brought casino dealer tip sharing to the Strip in 2006 to equalize pay levels on the casino floor, where dealers often earned more than their supervisors.
Wynn attorneys say only a minority of dealers have complained about the policy, and even the Culinary Union is backing Wynn. The Culinary says tip-pooling involving managers is commonplace in certain job classifications and is appropriate for those circumstances.
Attorneys for the dealers, however, say the policy diverts $5 million a year from dealers to Wynn. That’s the amount of money Wynn doesn’t have to pay for raises for supervisors, they say.
The court hasn’t yet indicated if it will allow the Culinary and the TWU to participate in the case with friend of the court briefs they have filed. Given the pace of the case at the Supreme Court, a ruling may be issued sometime in 2013.
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Hypocrites. Both unions negotiated contracts allowing tip sharing practices. And the dealers agreed to it. What's the point???
NRS 608.160 specifically states that employers are not allowed to take wages or tips from employees. However that doesn't mean employees cannot share tips among themselves.
These idiot casino owners, like Steve Wynn, need to have that NRS code tattooed to their forehead, and be forced to wear a sign that reads; "I steal from my workers".
I wrote an article a while back on the top 10 reasons poker players should tip their dealers:
http://cardplayerlifestyle.com/poker/top...
All of those reasons I state center around the premise that the tip is a bond forged among the tipper and the dealer individually. The fact that tip pooling has become so widespread make me want to tip someone less. Why should others be rewarded for excellent service provided to me individually by my dealer? And why should my dealer benefit from someone else's great work?
That's why I also wrote "the opposite" article: http://cardplayerlifestyle.com/poker/top...
it's a never ending fight
Well, which is worse. Stealing an employees tips or as Station casinos did. Give employees a raise, only to turn around and force employees to take extra non paid days off. How is that raise working out?
weinberg is the biggest piece of garbage in town....always has been---amazing how many clueless people are just realizing this guy has been shafting nevada and the workers for years---and pays next to nothing to do business here....this is a third world country kind of tax on the casinos here---lowest in the world that i know of.....literally 3 to 4 times higher in almost every other state to operate....this place is run by the casinos who shaft the workers and customers and then rip off the tips of the workers to pay the managers....what a fascist state this has become....this tip rip off is not just the dealers--they have expanded it to the bar and pool areas from what i understand--and the way they take and count the tips is very suspect and ripe for stealing (and there is always stealing-don't kid yourself).
I am still trying to figure out what a Transport Union has to do with casino dealers.
I do question a company's ability to run if they can't fire employees when they are not needed. This leads to hiring freezes.
Anyway, from there website:
The contract ( Caesars) itself secures their jobs denying the ability for the employer to terminate workers and change working conditions at any time for any reason. It will also ensure maintenance of existing wages and health care benefits, a grievance and arbitration procedure, just cause for termination, and preservation of the dealers right to challenge tip sharing.