William Slack and Harry Strock, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, in a federal class action say Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas improperly pay floor and table games supervisors.
Slack says at least 100 supervisors who have worked at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas for three years prior to the Oct. 4 class action filing date were only paid for partial days and could not use accumulated paid time off to make up the difference.
Named as defendants are Parball Newco LLC dba Bally’s, Parball Corporation and Parball LLC, which jointly operate Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.
Although they are salaried supervisors, Slack and Strock say Parball routinely sends them home when the casino floor is overstaffed and for other reasons after working four hours. Instead of paying them for a full day of work as a salaried worker, they say Parball deducts money from floor and table supervisors’ full salary pay for partial days worked and when the supervisors can’t or won’t use paid time off to make up the difference.
“Such a ‘partial day’ pay policy violates the salary basis test under state and federal law forbidding employers from making ‘partial day’ deductions from a salaried employees’ ‘full day’ salary pay,” Slack says.
Strock says he “was forced to use his accumulated paid time off to cover any unworked hours during his shift if he was told to leave early” by defendant managers.
If he didn’t use any of his paid time off, Strock says Parball only paid him for a partial day of work, and Parball similarly deducts pay from the salaries of all casino floor supervisors and table games supervisors.
Slack and Strock say Parball uses the salaried worker exemption to avoid paying overtime, yet, because it deducts hours from salaried supervisors for partial days, they say Parball misclassifies them as exempt from overtime pay in violation of state and federal laws.
Even if Parball did not deduct pay from their salaries, Slack and Strock say they still would be entitled to overtime pay.
“That is because there is no applicable overtime pay exemption for the plaintiffs and the class and collection action members, none of whom exercise independent judgment and discretion in decision-making in the fulfillment of their duties … that is sufficient to make them overtime-exempt ‘executive’ (managerial) employees,” Slack says.
“Indeed, the relevant practices and procedures of the defendants uniformly forbid the plaintiffs and the class and collective action members from exercising any such level of independent judgment and discretion in the performance of their duties,” he says.
Slack says Parball schedules the plaintiff supervisors for five eight-hour days each week, but also require them to attend pre-shift meetings, which added another 20 minutes of unpaid work time each day and amounted to about an hour and 40 minutes of unpaid work each week.
Parball also requires plaintiff supervisors to attend quarterly meetings that last up to two hours, as well as online training, testing and certification exams without pay, and special events would results in supervisors working six days per week without additional pay, Slack says.
Slack and Strock say they and other class members “were entitled to an overtime hourly wage of time and one-half their regular hourly wage for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week,” but Parball “willfully failed to make said overtime wage payments.”
The actual number of class members will become known upon reviewing employment records via the case’s discovery phase, Slack says.
Slack, et al., want the federal court to rule they are eligible for overtime pay and seek damages for unpaid work hours based upon an accounting of each class members’ pay over the prior three years for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.
Las Vegas attorney Leon Greenberg filed the federal class action in Nevada District Court in Las Vegas on Oct. 4.
