Tip-rules switch broke pacts, labor lawyer says (just like Starbucks)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.lvrj.com/business/17380614.html

Apr. 08, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Tip-rules switch broke pacts, labor lawyer says

No hint of court's position after hearing on Wynn case

By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY
REVIEW-JOURNAL

A Las Vegas labor attorney told Nevada's high court justices Monday that Wynn Las Vegas illegally violated employment agreements with its dealers when it changed its tip-pooling policy in 2006.

The Supreme Court justices heard arguments Monday from attorneys for the Strip hotel-casino and two dealers who sued Wynn Las Vegas after it changed its tip-pooling policy in September 2006. The seven justices asked questions of attorneys for both sides during a 40-minute hearing Monday, but gave no indication which way they were leaning or when they might issue a decision.

In late 2006, a Clark County District Court judge upheld Wynn Las Vegas' new tip-pooling policies, rejecting arguments that the hotel-casino's dealers are contract employees and that the new policy -- which reclassified some supervisors and allowed them to share some of the tip monies that had been given exclusively to dealers in the past -- illegally changed employment agreements.

The justices could uphold a ruling by District Court Judge Douglas Herndon dismissing a lawsuit brought by dealers Daniel Baldonado and Joseph Cesarz.

They could also overturn the lower court decision or send the dispute to the labor commissioner to resolve.

During the Monday hearing, labor attorney Leon Greenberg restated many of the same arguments he made during the District Court hearing: the change in the tip-pooling policy violated an employment agreement drafted before the property opened and that the new policy forcing dealers to share tips with supervisors violates state law. (Note that this is the third state with this type of law. Starbucks has had legal action taken against it in NY and Ca.)

"The tips no longer belong to the dealers, but to the Wynn, which distributed them as it saw fit," Greenberg argued.

FULL story and photos at link.