Harrah's fires best dealer for not working overtime

[MaverickUSC]

Last night I ran into my friend Thomas randomly. He has been a dealer at the Wynn for as long as I can remember, and has been working the WSOP full time this summer to raise some additional money for his wife and child. Thomas has always been a fantastic dealer, and is THE best dealer that I have had this year at the series. He's dealt to me two downs and the table was always impressed.

So last night he says to me, "I just got fired." The reason: He couldn't work overtime. His shift had just ended and the D/C asked him to stay on longer and work overtime. He said he can't becuase he works at the Wynn in 90 minutes and wants to get some food. They then say, "You're fired." He said that they have been needing a ton of dealers to work doubles because many dealers have been calling in for whatever reason. He was upset because he himself could have called in and not been fired, but since he wouldn't work overtime he got fired. This was about an hour before he had to be at the Wynn to deal all night.

I'm not sure what to say about that. I specifically asked him what the rest of the story is, because that just sounds too out there to be all the truth. I asked him if there was any history between him and the D/C, etc, etc... He said that the only thing was that he called in one time himself.

So lame.

Devo

[DoGGz]

If this is the guy I think it is, which I'm pretty sure it is, he was the best dealer I've had all year. We were getting more hands per hour with him then we would have with a normal dealer with a shuffle machine.

Pretty sad if this is true.

[rsigley]

isn't that illegal

[BradleyT]

[ QUOTE ]
isn't that illegal

[/ QUOTE ]

Not in most states. An employee or employer usually has the right to terminate employment for any reason.

[selurah]

Chalk this up as another fantastic decision by Harrahs. God these idiots ought to be kicked right in the [censored] nutz.

wow that american capitalist system again.

Long live mother russia....Power to the people.

BTB In Australia this is also true for any company to issue an instant dissmissal if they have under 20 employees. All major companies/corporations must issue 3 warnings and Harrah's would have their ass handed too them.

However it would appear that he was never employed on a full-time basis and only a casual one hence he probably has no leg to stand on.

[David LoPan]

I think if he went to the local paper and talked to a reporter about this, he could get the story out.

very [censored] up imo

I am sure eveything that Harrah's did was completely legal,

Don't mean to play devil's advocate here...but... from what I understand of employment law and the nature of employment for dealers in the US especially for the WSOP. That most of the dealers are in fact not regular dealers for Harrahs and are contracted out for the duration of the series, however unless he actually signed something saying he was to work a certian number of hours a day/week for the duration of the series he is entitled to no compensation.

Secondly if he did sign something like this he could have been in violation of this by not performing required overtime.

Here's a question though, Why didn't he call in sick to the Wynn??? It seems there was still enough time to do this and if he actually was a full-time employee there he would have to accept it. I feel the dealer in question (who I don't doubt is extremely competent based on the responses) probably handled himself poorly in this instance.

We all do this from time to time, it just always seems to be the case when somehting like this seems so single sided.

[sobefuddled]

Well there is a story here but I'm afraid this man's firing would take a back seat to it. The story really is the answer to the question Are a large number of dealers calling out sick or is there another reason for the OT?
As far as the firing goes it sounds to me like many of the dealers are probably freelancers which means they are self-employed. They are probably working on 1099s. That means they have absolutely no job security other than what he creates for himself. Harrahs obviously doesn't care about his skill. They need the body.

[craigmarq]

Is he that black guy? If so he was amazing. One of the few dealers who actually was able to keep track of the pot in PL events, and was extremely quick in just about everything he did.


C