Culinary asks commission to restrict Santa Fe layoffs

David Strow

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

In an unprecedented move, the Culinary Union has asked Nevada's top gaming regulatory body to consider a regulation that would restrict layoffs after the acquisition of a Nevada hotel-casino.

The Culinary's emergency petition, introduced last week, will be considered at Thursday's meeting of the Nevada Gaming Commission. The Culinary is asking for a regulation to be adopted at that meeting, a move that would block Station Casinos Inc. from laying off the 900 employees of the Santa Fe hotel-casino when it acquires the property Oct. 2.

"We'll give them a full and fair hearing, an opportunity to convince the commission as to why it's appropriate to adopt the proposed regulation," said Commission Chairman Brian Sandoval. Following the hearing, Sandoval said, the commission could decide to immediately adopt a regulation, dismiss the petition altogether, or schedule further hearings at a later date.

However, Sandoval said, "the commission has never heard an emergency petition on a new regulation and adopted it on the same day. It would have to be an extreme circumstance."

The commission will hold hearings on Station's application to acquire the Santa Fe prior to hearings on the emergency petition. Sandoval denied a Culinary request to speak during Station's licensing hearing, saying it would turn a suitability hearing into an adversarial hearing. He said he was also concerned placing new witnesses and subjects on the agenda couldn't be properly noticed to the public and might violate Nevada's open meetings law.

However, Sandoval said he believed the petition deserved to be addressed because "it's important to give the union a forum to raise their concerns."

If the commission did vote to adopt a regulation immediately, Sandoval said, that new regulation could be applied to the Santa Fe case, even if the commission voted to approve the purchase earlier.

In the seven-page petition, Culinary attorney Richard McCracken argues that the commission could adopt a new regulation under Nevada gaming law, which states that the commission has the authority to protect "the general welfare of the inhabitants of the state."

"It is inhumane for the new owner of a gaming business to discard the workers who worked there and instead hire others off the street," McCracken wrote. "Allowing existing workers to remain ensures continuity of regulatory compliance and continuity of service to the public. It also prevents a waste of taxpayer resources on unemployment and welfare benefits."

In its petition, the Culinary proposed giving new owners the ability to replace managerial and supervisory employees at will, the ability to fire employees for poor performance and misconduct within 90 days of the purchase, and the ability to bring employees in from outside properties "to work with the prior owner's workforce."

Alternatively, the union suggested that a new owner retain at least 80 percent of the old workforce, "and provide access to job openings at least equal to that provided by other applicants."

Sandoval said it was premature to say whether he favored such a regulation.

The Culinary has been denied twice in attempts to force Station to retain the Santa Fe employees. Both the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the Las Vegas City Council have denied Culinary requests to make keeping the current employees a condition of the Santa Fe's license.

Station has argued it needs the flexibility to hire new employees at its discretion as the property is undergoing a massive repositioning under the Station brand. The company has said it will retain some of the property's employees, but how many will keep their jobs after Oct. 2 remains unclear.