Hospitality workers sue Las Vegas casinos for allegedly not protecting them from coronavirus

‘None of our upper management had a clue what to do and that’s unfortunate,’ says bellman Sixto Zermeno

Hospitality workers are suing Las Vegas casinos, for reportedly failing to protect them from Covid-19 when they reopened in June.

Casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, reopened on 4 June, but two unions, the Culinary Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165, have claimed that the Bellagio, the MGM Grand and Harrah’s put employees at risk by implementing lax social distancing measures, according to the New York Post.

The properties, which are run by MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, were slow to tell employees that colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19, according to a complaint filed on Monday.

They have also been accused of not immediately shutting down areas where infected workers had been and did not track down all members of staff who had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus.

The complaint also alleges that the companies provided workers “with flatly false information about how Covid-19 spreads and what its symptoms are, in an effort to keep workers on the job and revenues flowing.”

Bellam Sixto Zermeno, a bellmen at The Signature at MGM Grand, contracted coronavirus earlier in the month, and told his bosses as quickly as he could.

He alleges that management did not immediately inform colleagues who had come into contact with him, and the complaint confirms that at least three bellmen and valets who subsequently interacted with guests at the complex, have tested positive for Covid-19.

“None of our upper management had a clue what to do and that’s unfortunate,” Mr Zermeno said. “They put a lot of us and our families at risk.”

Sadelle’s Cafe at the Bellagio and the Guy Fieri Vegas Kitchen, based at Harrah’s, which is owned by Caesars Entertainment, both neglected to take precautions, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that the restaurants did not take action after food runners tested positive for coronavirus and Harrah’s did not close until two says after an employee was confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Ceasar’s Entertainment released a statement, and said that when they were informed that one of their employees had tested positive for coronavirus they tracked down all employees who had been in contact with the worker.

“These individuals are all subject to paid, self-isolation,” the statement read. “To the best of our knowledge, none of these employees have tested positive for Covid-19, but none will be allowed to return to work until they submit a negative test at the end of the isolation period.

“Additionally, the restaurant has been temporarily closed and subject to a deep cleaning during the closure period.”

MGM Resorts told the Post in a statement: “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of everyone inside of our properties.”

They added that free coronavirus tests have been offered to all employees, and said that they have been trained on contact tracing, to help stop the spread.

Last week, Nevada governor Steve Sisolak issued a mandatory face mask order, amid rising coronavirus cases in the state, which has seen a four week upward trend in new daily cases.

“As I said last week, we’re not post Covid. We’re still in the middle of the first phase, the first wave of Covid,” Mr Sisolak said.

“So please, I cannot emphasise this enough, wear your face covering anytime you leave your house, when you go to a restaurant, and you stop the pharmacy, when you enter a casino. Wear your face covering.”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 2.6 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 129,544.