Panel reviews bill to help dislocated workers

Friday, May 30, 1997 | 11:44 a.m.

"It was a traumatic experience," he recalled Thursday in testimony to the Assembly Labor and Management Committee in support of a bill to help dislocated workers.

Stoneburner said he found another job quickly but the salary was 60 percent lower than his pay at Bally's. "Here I was, 50 years old, on the street and competing for an entry-level job," he added.

AB506 would require companies with 50 or more employees to give 120-days notice if they plan mass layoffs, and to file a plan with the state justifying the action. The bill also sets up state programs to help the displaced workers.

The measure ran into solid opposition from a host of businesses and its chances of passage this Legislature are slim.

After the hearing, Assemblywoman Sandi Krenzer, D-Las Vegas, the chairwoman of the committee, called the bill "onerous ... almost Draconian in the provisions of reporting and mandating benefits."

"We can't let the state make decisions for business," she said when asked about the chances of AB506. "This bill is not the solution."

Bob Ostrovsky, representing the Nevada Resort Association, said the bill would get the state involved in making decisions for businesses when they get ready to lay off workers.

"The state is equipped to provide programs, not to run businesses," he told the committee.

Sam McMullen, lobbyist for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, said the measure would take away the flexibility of business to make decisions.

Other businessmen said their employees are their most trusted resource and layoff decisions aren't made hastily.

The bill gained support from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada whose director, Bob Fulkerson, testified that it's needed to force business to show respect for its workers.

At Christmas time, Fulkerson said there are often closures or big layoffs in the casino industry.

Michael Cook of Reno complained about the "abuses of the corporate tyrants" and cited the case of the layoffs of 40 security guards at the Reno Hilton "in the name of free enterprise."

"There is nothing to protect the working people in Nevada which has 'at-will' employment," he added.

When the bill was introduced, Krenzer cited, as an example of abuse, the case of two employees at Woolworth's in Reno - one of them with 30 years - who were laid off during the New Year's flood. She said they were offered employment back at entry-level pay.