Stateline casinos firing employees

By Kathryn Reed

Several Lake Tahoe casino workers are out of work and others are losing hours.

Less than a week after Caesars Entertainment – parent company of Harrah’s Lake Tahoe and Harveys – announced it would be trimming its workforce by 1 percent, the ax came down. Some of the jobs were eliminated last week, some this week.

John Packer, spokesman for the local properties, did not respond to an email.

It is not known how many were let go or from which departments. One source told Lake Tahoe News 10 people were laid off in facilities engineering from Harrah’s. No one in table games lost their jobs, but other departments were affected.

“We had to sign documents,” a now former employee told Lake Tahoe News. He would not discuss specifics of the separation.

There are also reports of layoffs in senior management in Las Vegas.

At MontBleu in Stateline hours are being cut.

“(They are) actively trying to cut down our hours in an attempt to perhaps increase the number of part-time employees,” an employee of 15-plus years told Lake Tahoe News. “They have already changed the guidelines for full-timers from 30 hours per week minimum assessed by quarters to assessed yearly. (This) means if you do not actively self-monitor these numbers and how they are assessed, you might have only one quarter or three months to bring your numbers up. I understand these might be hard economic times for the casinos, but I wish they would be more forthright and less callous with their own employees.”

Steve Ditchkus, general manager of MontBleu, did not return a phone call.

At the start of this year MontBleu eliminated health insurance for employees; instead opting to pay the $2,000 penalty per employee as mandated by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act.

Employees don’t know what will happen for 2015.

“I couldn’t make a statement,” a woman in human resources told Lake Tahoe News last week. “We haven’t started open enrollments. I’m not saying yes or no (to whether we’ll offer health benefits).”