East Coast casino to put ‘term limits’ on employees
By Emma Jacobs, NPR
A new casino set to open in Atlantic City, N.J., has announced it will set term limits for its front-line staff. When employees’ terms run out, they’ll have to go through the hiring process again. The casino says the policy will keep its service fresh. Others say the company is taking advantage of a tough job market.
From bellhops to dealers, employees of the new casino — called Revel — will be hired for terms from four to six years. After that, they have to reapply for their jobs and compete against other candidates.
Revel declined to make anyone available for an interview. In a written statement, the company asserts that its employment policy will help it “attract the most highly professional people who are inspired by a highly competitive work environment.”
But it’s an unusual way to go. Many who work in employment law or advocacy say they’ve never heard of anything like this before.
“What they’ve done here is set up a system that puts their good performers through a gauntlet of having to compete with people who have no record of performance,” says Alice Ballard, a prominent employment attorney who works out of Philadelphia.
Ballard says anyone can be fired from his or her job. But she thinks the casino’s policy is more problematic.
“Why would you take your good performers and put them through that competitive process,” she asks, “if you aren’t trying to get rid of a good performer for some other reason?”
Ballard thinks that “other reason” is probably age. To her, this reapplication process looks like a low-profile way for the casino to regularly weed out older employees.
Very creative. Given all the Union and Government regulations and corruption today that businesses have to deal with, this is probably a testing ground for more creative hiring processes; and ultimately business survival.
The greedy will hopefully have to enjoy the consequences of their non-accountable actions.
I understand Ballard’s perspective in regard to firing, but there are always unintended consequences to any action or regulation. However, in this case, there is not even a contest as to whether the risks outweigh the benefits.
This type of hiring process will have its pitfalls, especially as they “learn as they go,” but ultimately I applaud the brilliance of this tactic. The implications are endless.
There may be hope for this country after all. Bravo!
They should put term limits on managers, and have a 360-degree review of their performance once a year.
Warrior!!! You sure read like Casino Repubtrioic deregulator.
Sameo sameo “ultimately business survival”
Your name please
Unions for the Casino industry is way over due including the Indian nations.
Too many give more than they are asked for.
Someone needs to protect these employees for fair working rights,condition,fair pay,health benefit’s hiring practices.
Unions outlived their purpose in the 50’s!
They also helped to create the situation of companies outsourcing their jobs overseas. Having term limits on certain casino jobs may not seem fair, but many of these jobs are of a nature where burnout can set in, thereby lending itself to poor guest relations, which in turn decreases the bottom line. The flip side of this coin is that said businesses will continually be spending more on training new individuals.
I bet the housekeeping staff at Harrahs/Harveys wished they had unionized now that they’ve been shafted.