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275 casino staff opt for job buyouts
Posted By COREY LAROCQUE
More than 275 casino workers took the recent buyouts offered by Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara, a move the company made to shed some of its full-time employees and shift the emphasis to part-time employment.
In a memo to all casino workers, Niagara Casinos president Art Frank called the first-ever voluntary resignation program a “win/win for all parties.”
“It is a win for the company, as we have been able to rebalance our full-time to part-time mix that allows us to be more responsive to changing market conditions,” Frank wrote in a memo dated Saturday, the day after the deadline for employees to apply for a buyout.
It’s also a win for people who took advantage of the offer, because they took “an opportunity to make a significant change in their lives,” he wrote. Casino management had pitched the buyouts as a chance for veteran workers or those close to retirement to make a change.
Frank declined The Review’s request for an interview about the first buyout offer in the casinos’ 11-year history in Niagara Falls.
But Niagara Casinos spokesman Greg Medulun said it will permit the casinos to respond to uncertain market conditions.
“With rebalancing our full-time to part-time mix … it makes us more responsive to fluctuating, uncertain market conditions,” Medulun said in an interview.
In total, 279 employees applied for the voluntary resignation package. Another 11 took another offer to switch to part-time status. Those who shifted will keep the benefits package they had as full-time workers for one year. After that, they’ll be covered by the benefits package part-time employees get. Part-time employees get up to 24 hours a week, Medulun said.
The changes bring the casinos’ complement of full-time staff to about 3,000. The two programs affected about 8.8 per cent of the casinos’ full-time workforce.
In April, the casinos offered all their full-time employees a voluntary resignation package that would give them three weeks’ pay for every year of service. The program capped the buyout at 26 weeks’ pay.
Before the buyouts, the casinos had 5,000 employees, about 65 per cent of whom were full-time.
Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor said he’s “frustrated” to see the casinos, which are owned by the Ontario government, cut employees. When he was a city councillor in the 1990s, he supported bringing a casino to Niagara Falls because of the employment it was to bring.
“I’m just devastated for the workers. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect this would happen with the casino,” Craitor said.
Politicians don’t have much influence on the daily operations of the casinos which operate under the ownership of Ontario Lottery and Gaming. They’re run by Falls Management Co., a partnership led by Hyatt Hotels, that was picked by the previous Conservative government in 1998 to run the casinos in Niagara Falls.
“It’s hard for me to comment. I didn’t choose the operator. I have no say inside. It’s not our casino,” Craitor said.
The emphasis on part-time workers is to give the casinos the “flexibility” they need to respond to the gambling market. The casinos’ busiest times are in the evenings and on weekends.
The buyouts give the casinos the right employee mix for the time being, Medulun said.
He wouldn’t speculate about the possibility of more cuts or a reduction in hours in the fall, traditionally a slower period.
Article ID# 1035383
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