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Mon 30 Jan, 2012 11:35 am
Will this terrible idea spread to other companies? BBB
Employees To Face 'Term Limits' At Casino
by Emma Jacobs - NPR Morning Edition
January 30, 2012
A new casino set to open in Atlantic City, N.J., has announced it will set term limits for its front-line staff. When employees' terms run out, they'll have to go through the hiring process again. The casino says the policy will keep its service fresh. Others say the company is taking advantage of a tough job market.
From bellhops to dealers, employees of the new casino — called Revel — will be hired for terms from four to six years. After that, they have to reapply for their jobs and compete against other candidates.
Revel declined to make anyone available for an interview. In a written statement, the company asserts that its employment policy will help it "attract the most highly professional people who are inspired by a highly competitive work environment."
But it's an unusual way to go. Many who work in employment law or advocacy say they've never heard of anything like this before.
"What they've done here is set up a system that puts their good performers through a gauntlet of having to compete with people who have no record of performance," says Alice Ballard, a prominent employment attorney who works out of Philadelphia.
Ballard says anyone can be fired from his or her job. But she thinks the casino's policy is more problematic.
"Why would you take your good performers and put them through that competitive process," she asks, "if you aren't trying to get rid of a good performer for some other reason?"
The new Revel casino, which sits along the boardwalk in Atlantic City, has drawn criticism for its employment policies.
Ballard thinks that "other reason" is probably age. To her, this reapplication process looks like a low-profile way for the casino to regularly weed out older employees.
On the other hand, there's a logic to Revel's thinking, according to Brian Tyrrell, a professor of hospitality management at Stockton College in New Jersey. To make his point, he quotes a famous hotel executive.
"I think it was Hilton who talks about 1,000 points of contact with the guest, and how that is what the guest remembers, in terms of the service delivery experience," Tyrrell says. "They want to have a high degree of control over that."
Tyrrell thinks the reapplication policy will motivate people to move up in the company — because management positions won't require people to reapply. He also says Atlantic City desperately needs new jobs, and the employment insecurity imposed by Revel may be a price worth paying.
Atlantic City casino employee Jeff Payne sits in the living room of the comfortable house he bought with his earnings. He has been with Caesars for 23 years. Now, he serves drinks in the high-roller lounge.
"How can you buy a car if you don't know you're going to have a job?" Payne asks. "You want to refinance your home; you want to buy a home. I mean, these have always been decent jobs, good-paying jobs, sustaining jobs. But my concern is, you get this job — and then you have no job security."
Payne, a union member, says the new jobs aren't what were promised when gaming came to Atlantic City.
But a lot of people laid off from casinos in Atlantic City in the past few years still haven't found work. He says that even with Revel's tough hiring policy, those people probably will apply.
This is one of those ideas which sounds good when the brass was talking about after the second martinis, but I think it will end up costing them more than it saves.
The really good employees will look forward to demanding a nice "re-signing bonus" or they will give the company a nice "resigning" letter.
(If you want my body, you've got to pay."
Any one the company tries to get rid of because of age (and that is the likely reason for trying this) will have plenty of time to prepare their lawsuit.
(I have been keeping careful notes for the past four years.)
Plus they are going to have to pay someone or a number of someones to look at all the re-applications on top of the applications they are getting everyday.
Joe(not schmart)Nation
@Joe Nation,
It's sure going to look good on a mortgage application. ". . . and how long have you held your current job, Mr. Nation? How would you rate your job security?"
@Joe Nation,
Yup. Either the re-hiring process is a sham, or it's gonna cost 'em big bucks.
When you look at what the cost of going through the hiring process is, it makes sense to keep your employees on.
Plus, why apply for an advertised position if it's likely that the position is already filled? They'll only get stupid applicants who haven't figured out what the score is.
@DrewDad,
Took a while, but I finally wised up to that. Around here, any job advertised by either city or county is either part time, temporary, or already filled in fact if not in name. They just have rules requiring the jobs be publically advertised.
I have not read everything on the thread, but my first thought was, the rehired ones might get demoted to part time. Companies save lots of money when they do that.
@edgarblythe,
Maybe just an interruption in medical coverage if they have that. Also, it usually takes a year to enter a 401k plan, if they even have that.
Could be the company will end up paying significantly more on unemployment insurance if the have a lot of terminations. Surely they will if the separated employees file for unemployment compensation.
I see it as a possible way to weed out the higher earners, should they want to.
@ossobuco,
Oh yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe they have a standard wage scale, with a range from starting, with enhancements up to a certain level. It's fair because all 'new hires' start out the same.
@roger,
That was my first thought, anyway. Similar in a way to the age thing, long time hires who have aged are both getting unhealthier and earning more.
@ossobuco,
Now I remember what I was thinking. It usually takes a year to enter a retirement plan, and a year after that, you become 20% vested. Takes about six years then to become fully vested.
Anyway, I don't for a minute believe the plan is as innocuous as they want to make it sound.
@ossobuco,
Adds, my father, a good film editor, had trouble getting hired for jobs after he hit his mid fifties. There is also a thing in Hollywood re youth culture for creativity, so called, likely even more so these days. I think they may be something similar with casinos, but of course I don't know.
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