Las Tuesday, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed “Right to Return” legislation that ensures laid-off hospitality workers are able to return to their previous jobs.
Representatives of the gaming industry and the state’s influential Culinary Union negotiated a deal on the workers’-rights legislation with less than a week left in the 120-day legislative session.
The union made some concessions in bargaining, limiting the reach of the bill, exempting certain employee categories including managers and stage performers, and also exempting some small businesses like restaurants that adjoin casino resorts.
According to reports, every vote on SB386 was made along party lines, with Democrats in support and Republicans opposed.
The Nevada Resort Association agreed to take a neutral position in return for the concessions, and major gaming operators like MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts and Caesars Entertainment backed the amended bill. The opposition came from Las Vegas locals casinos.
In a statement, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline said the new law would “protect over 350,000 hospitality workers” in Clark and Washoe counties.
“At the height of the pandemic, 98 percent of Culinary Union members were laid off and currently only 50 percent are back to work,” Argüello-Kline said. “While a majority of unionized hospitality workers already have extended recall protections in their contracts, most hospitality workers protected by the new SB386 Right to Return law are not unionized.”
South Point Casino-Hotel attorney Barry Lieberman said the bill was “a confusing patchwork of vague, burdensome and non-helpful requirements” that forced employers “to guess at their peril as to what the bill actually requires them to do.” He suggested the changes infringed on an employer’s right to rehire casino workers who have “superior skills.”
