State claims AC Caesars workers were illegally fired

Friday, Aug. 17, 2001 | 10:49 a.m.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Two female employees of Caesars Atlantic City were fired for complaining about male colleagues' practice of using the casino's hidden surveillance cameras to ogle other women, according to a complaint disclosed Thursday by the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.

Throughout 2000 and part of this year, men in the casino's surveillance department used the cameras, which are intended to prevent cheating, to zoom in on women's breasts and other parts of their bodies as they walked the casino floor, sat or worked at gambling tables or rode escalators, the division's director, O. Lisa Dabreu, said in an interview.

The video images of the women appeared on monitors in the casino's surveillance office, and male employees made obscene and sexually explicit remarks in the company of the two female workers, Dabreu said.

The two women complained to their supervisors and, after they were fired in July 2000 and in March 2001, went to the Civil Rights Division.

A spokesman for Caesars, which was purchased in December 1999 by Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas, said the company was cooperating with the Civil Rights Division. "Park Place Entertainment has zero tolerance for sexual harassment," said the spokesman, Brian Cahill.