The Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise (NNGE) recently that announced 900 employees were permanently laid off on July 27 and another 140 faced the same fate.
Brian Parrish, NNGE interim chief executive, said, “We’re in the process of notifying them now. We’re doing that with phone calls from their supervisors. And if we can’t get hold of them, we’re also sending them letters, so they have the information.”
The tribe’s three casinos in northwestern New Mexico and one east of Flagstaff, Arizona closed March 17 due to Covid-19. Officials had announced the venues would reopen July 27. Now NNGE officials said they would follow Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez’s executive order closing tribal offices until at least mid-August, due to recent surges in Covid-19 cases.
Parrish stated, “The layoff procedure that we have, it’s very extensive. It involves every level of the organization. So, it’s not that management isn’t affected, but everybody. It’s not a sure thing the layoff is going to occur, but we wanted to err on the side of caution”
Parrish said the layoffs could occur in two stages if the NNGE doesn’t receive any financial assistance from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Stimulus Act, or CARES Act. He said employees were paid with NNGE cash reserves. But now after nearly 19 weeks those reserves are running low. Parrish said the NNGE has asked tribal leaders for a share of the federal relief money the tribe received, but they probably won’t make an immediate decision on how to allocate the remaining funds.
Parrish said, “So, our thought process is once we can reopen, we’ll be able to get back on our feet. But the CARES funding is going to help stabilize as well as we rebuild the business. And so that’s what we’re facing. The key would be doing temporary layoffs, for hopefully a very, very short period, if at all.”
A skeleton crew including about 100 security and maintenance crews, engineers and some managers will remain at their jobs, Parrish said. He noted employees who are not being paid will continue to receive health benefits.
The tribe has implemented a weekend lockdown policy that includes closing businesses after sunset Friday and reopening early Monday morning. Daily and nighttime curfews also are in force and residents of the reservation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah are required to wear masks in public.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said the decision to reopen was up to the gaming board. But, he noted, “the health of their employees and casino patrons is our priority.” Nez said, “We’re relying on the data and the advice of health care experts, and the states of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico are still seeing very high daily numbers. In Arizona, a number of tribal-operated casinos reopened too early and ended up having to close again due to spikes in new cases.”
Parrish stated, “When we do reopen, we’re going to have to spend a bunch of money on food and beverage supplies and operating equipment. To get the buildings ready to reopen–they’ve been closed for over five months now—there’s a lot of prep and things like that, that needs going through it. We’ll need to pay for all those things up front.”
