SEARCH NEWS:

 

Casinos workers forced to work in smoking sections

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey -- As reported by the Press of Atlantic City: "When City Council agreed to allow smoking on one-fourth of each casino's gaming floor instead of a total ban, council members and casino executives said the smoking sections would be staffed by volunteers.

"'So far, we have a lot of employees who have raised their hands and said they are willing to volunteer to work in the smoking areas,' J. Carlos Tolosa, eastern division president for Harrah's Entertainment, told The Press of Atlantic City in January.

"James B. Perry, then CEO of Trump Entertainment Resorts, said his company was leaning toward a volunteer system rather than forcing people to work in the smoking section.

"But casino workers say Tolosa and Perry were just blowing smoke.

"The volunteer list never existed, said Liz String, a longtime employee at Harrah's Atlantic City. People get rotated into smoking and nonsmoking sections as they always did, she said. People who have notes from their doctors saying they can't work in smoky areas are sent out on medical leave, she said. A

"n update issued to employees at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in April states that workers may not request assignment to nonsmoking areas.

"...Karen Blumenfeld, a Summit attorney who does work for the New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution, said she knows at least a half-dozen casino employees who asked to work in nonsmoking areas and were denied. Four of them have medical notes citing health conditions that would be made worse by exposure to secondhand smoke..."

copyrighted material written for and appeared exclusively in The Press of Atlantic City

< Gaming News