PHILIPSBURG - Some 23 Starz casino dealers showed up for work on Tuesday evening and were told they had no jobs and some would be paid out and some repositioned within the company.

 

Angry workers showed up at The Daily Herald late last night and gave an account of what had transpired between the management and them earlier on Tuesday.

 

A group of regulars at the casino were playing poker on Saturday and won US $200,000 in a single game. This caused quite a commotion in the casino and management decided to downsize immediately. Twenty-eight tables turned into four tables from Tuesday morning to Tuesday evening when the night shift started.

 

One worker spoke to this newspaper on behalf of all dealers and said the casino was known for firing workers out of the blue and it was time for the abuse of their labour rights to stop.

 

“I have been working for Atlantis (Starz Casino) for 10 years and what they did to us is not right. I have children. We have workers who have been there for 14 years, another one for 12 years. They need to stop messing with people’s bread. How can they just decide to allow us to come to work and make dramatic changes?

 

“I came in and two others were told by management that we are special and they will keep us on, but the rest will have to go. In another meeting management told three others that they are special and that another position will be found for them. We decided to stand firm and told management that we are not going anywhere. The management of Starz Casino told them to vacate the property and that was it.

 

“Ten years of my life, some of us are permanent workers and how can they just fire us or decide that we being moved to another position? Management knows that once we leave the dealer position, we would have to sign another contract and during trial period they let you go. That is what they do and that will happen to us and we will not stand for this,” said the emotional dealer.

 

Another dealer said she had signed her contract as a dealer on Monday and had been told on Tuesday that she was being relieved of her duties. “Some dealers have been there for months and were spared from having to move from their positions. We who worked for many years for the company get this disrespect from this company. It is unfair and dealers should not be blamed for the casino losses. What happens when we, the casino, wins and we take more than the amount lost on Saturday?” the dealer said.

 

“We plan to go to the Labour Office and we expect to get help from them, because the casino has a lot of people in their pockets and I hope that the Labour Office is not one of them. We expect them to fix this injustice being done to us. One day you have 32 workers and the next day in the middle of the tourist season you let go of 23 workers. Something is wrong. I have kids that need to go to school, some of us have children that need milk, we all have landlords. What do we tell them at the end of the month?” said another dealer.

 

In a statement to this newspaper, Managing Director J. Giuseppe said the workers had not been fired and he wanted to assure them that they all had a place at Starz Casino.

 

“We have decided to change for the profitability of the casino and I think that dealers cannot force us to have tables. We have four tables and we informed all workers to come on Wednesday at 3:00pm and seven will be placed back as dealers and the others will have the opportunity to be slot machine attendants or waitresses, because we do not want to send any worker home.

 

“We just decided to change it up and take another approach with our games at the casino,” he said late on Tuesday evening. He extended an invitation to all workers to come to Starz Casino to work out their grievances.

 

Atlantis Casino was changed recently to Starz Casino as it now offers 24 hours of gaming. The dealers plan to speak to a legal representative to give insight as to the way forward.