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Sahara faces lawsuit alleging discrimination
Federal agency alleges worker harrassed because of Egyptian heritage
Friday, July 31, 2009 | 4:28 p.m.
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A federal agency sued the Sahara hotel-casino in Las Vegas on Thursday, alleging discrimination against an employee because of his Egyptian heritage.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims Ezzat Elias was subjected to harassment by the Sahara based on his national origin and that the Sahara didn't protect him from discriminatory conduct by coworkers and supervisors.
A message for comment on the lawsuit was left Friday with the Sahara.
The EEOC lawsuit, filed in federal court in Las Vegas, says the Sahara retaliated against Elias for engaging in activities protected by law regarding the allegedly hostile work environment including filing union grievances, filing a discrimination charge and working through the Sahara's internal complaint procedures.
"Since at least January 2005, defendants have engaged in unlawful employment practices creating a hostile work environment,'' the suit alleges.
"Charging Party (Elias), who worked as a steady kitchen runner, was subjected to repeated harassment based on his national origin by supervisors and co-workers. The harassment included offensive comments, slurs, and epithets, such as being called `Bin Laden,' `Taliban,' and `(expletive) Egyptian'; and being told to `go back to Egypt,''' the suit alleges.
"Charging Party also was targeted with graffiti, which he was forced to wash off,'' the suit alleged. "Despite Charging Party’s repeated complaints of harassment, defendants failed to take effective measures to stop the harassment. Instead, defendants retaliated against him, which included disciplinary write-ups and suspension.''
The suit seeks a court order barring the Sahara from discriminating against workers based on their national origin and engaging in retaliatory employment practices, as well as providing back pay and other financial compensation to Elias.
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- Locally owned and independent since 1950; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, best news website in the nation & DuPont Award for broadcast journalism
Gee, the principal owner is Iranian, so what's up?
What's the big deal !!! You come to middle East (Saudi Arabian region), and these egyptian are the number one discriminator in that area. Treating all asian (specially south east asian) as worst than dog with physical and moral harrasment specially to the ladies. Good for him, he taste a bit of his own medicine.
Apparently, these arabs come to understand the meaning of the word "descrimination" when it happened to them.
how ironic that someplace called the "sahara" is accused of being mean to an egyptian.
absolutely 100 per cent with you on that one!!! If we go to Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Turky or Dubai, then we definetely feel discrimination 101!!! They wouldn't give a xxxxxxx a....ss about us and if you only dare to complain about anything ....YOU WOULD BE OUT OF COUNTRY. so what's the point here? I think somebody is trying to milk out some easy dollars before quitting his job!!!
From Switzerland
This is funny and why Vegas is failing and will not recover
1). Tourism is way off
2). Gas is increasing
3). Unemployment is raising
4). Drugs abuse is everywhere
5). Gambling abuse is everywhere
6). Health abuse like drinking and Hep. C and is happening more and more
7). Vegas overbuilt their cities with Casinos
8). Vegas home prices are 70% down from what they used to, new projections coming up that a vegas house will be worth $50,000 Average
9). Lawsuits against the casinos
10). Nightclubs and casino getting fine heavily
Only will get worse. Get out of Vegas or you will be stuck with nothing.
Is Elias a citizen of the United States or is he a citizen from another country? It cannot be descrimimation if he is a national from another country. If he is a national from another country only his countrymen could discrimimate against him. If he is from another country and doesn't like it, he can leave or become a citizen of the United States.
So basically everyone feels it's fine to discrimnate against people different than you. Nice. And I love the "they do it too" opinion. So we shouldn't uphold the values of "all men created equal" because other countries don't. Really?
If true, that is really, really bad.
This behavior should not be tolerated. If proven, Sahara should be fined big time.
What a disgrace!
I always wonder why individuals keep logs and diaries regarding comments and the like until they build a case, instead of going first to the individual(s) at the time of the incident and discussing it in a professional and mature fashion without all the drama. The next step would be going to the department head followed by the HR department. As a last recourse the individual is left no option other than to seek outside counsel. Invariably it has been my experience that companies take this type of harassment very seriously. Occasionally the individual experiencing the persecution (real or imagined) is indeed victim of intentional and deliberate discrimination. If not, most perpetrators are either sincerely sorry or scared straight and will change their behavior. It is not unusual for victims to not accept sincere apologies and they exonerate the situation with quiet anger on their own part. This individual may have taken the steps I mentioned and still met an insensitive and unresponsive management team. If so I would agree that the Sahara is responsible. But if not, I would me reluctant to discharge penalties.
retro-obsessed:
OMG It's Armageddon here in the desert!!!
All those things you listed other than the casino-related ones, are happening in a lot of cities, not just Vegas.
Drug abuse everywhere? Prove it.
Gas increasing? NOt in my neighborhood!
Health abuse like Drinking?? LOLOL
Hep C??? Again Prove it!!!
You have too much time on your hands to come up with a list like that!!!
I guess we're all going to hell in a handbasket since we're all "drug abusing, drunken, unemployed, in to walking (since gas is increasing), unhealthy addicts who all bailed on paying our mortgages and who all have lawyers on retainer to sue....anyone not just casinos"
You need a life.
AN IRONWORKER STATED LAST NIGHT AT THE BAR THAT 10 ILLEGALS HAD THE SAME SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER....
The operative phrase here is "at the bar". Like what is said in bars is the truth. And after several more drinks, it is The Gospel According to Bud Light and Jack Daniels. Please.....
fremmasmind I really hope you're being sarcastic. Discrimination is illegal in the US regardless of your citizenship status. Using your logic then it would be ok to beat him and kill him too since if he's not a citizen these things would only be illegal if they were committed by his own countrymen.
Hey you know what that means? It's not illegal then for someone to come to this country as a visitor and commit various crimes! Yeah I'm sure you'd support that view.
If anyone is either a US Citizen or not a US Citizen, they still have the same legal rights to all state and federal labor laws if they provided any labor work within the United States.... regardless if they are documented or undocumented workers.
I find this hard to believe what the Sahara Hotel is accused of in these allegations and if this is true, I cant believe upper management did not resolve the issues at hand, and that's if they even knew about the matter which I doubt... cuz they would know it is clearly a violation of discrimination with a potential hefty fine the company would be liable to pay.
I mean, if the 29 year old plaintiff rode a camel to work or something, I can see co workers going off on him maybe, but other than that I dont believe there is any call for what was being alleged in the suit for just doing the assigned labor tasks.
All I know about the Sahara is the craps table bosses are either controlled by white women or italian men that run them, and the dealers are mainly any other ethnic background there is... maybe other ethnic genders can file a suit too for not having the same opportunity to run a craps table.
I feel for the plaintiff for even having the guts to file a case of this magnitude and it will be a hard case to prove since management always lie and twist statements to their favor.
I wonder if the Vegas Club or the Terrible's Primm dealers also start class action suits against their casino soon. I hardly could spot one "real 100 per cent all original American" in these properties. All dealers seem to be from anywhere else of this planet, but from Vegas, USA. El Cortez is also hiring a huge percentage of international diversified people from all across the planet. There must be a reason for that. Working for minimum wage without decent tips is tough conditions. Many people are used to some living standards and these jobs are tough to fit these criteria. If Sahara loses this job, I expect other casinos to face similar lawsuits. I wonder if all other casinos make sure that their employees are treated correctly.
From Switzerland
This behavior should stop. Las Vegas is a world class destination. There is no room for this anymore.