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Online Blackjack News - Casino Suffers From Lawsuit Brought against it
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The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court here, alleges the Casino Queen Inc.'s "racially hostile work environment" included preferential treatment for white employees, with their black counterparts often disciplined more harshly. The accusers also claim the casino gave white employees promotions, more favorable job duties and other unspecified employment benefits over black workers with greater or similar seniority.
"Black employees are subjected to termination of employment for acts which white employees are not," according to the lawsuit. Julie Hauser, a Casino Queen spokeswoman, declined comment, saying the company does not discuss pending litigation. The Casino Queen failed or refused to investigate complaints about the questioned conduct, instead subjecting the plaintiffs to continued discrimination and harassment, in some cases firing them for "no legitimate business reason," the lawsuit alleges. One of the firings came in 2003, though most of them happened since 2005, the lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiffs (11 of them still on the casino's payroll) have or still suffer “humiliation, embarrassment, degradation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress,” the complaint adds.
The Casino Queen acted “with malice or reckless indifference” with discriminatory conduct that “was so outrageous, extreme and in disregard of the interests of the plaintiffs,” entitling the accusers to $1 million in punitive damages. The plaintiffs also seek unspecified compensatory damages, including lost wages and benefits.
The discrimination “appears to be a pattern _ a very troubling pattern,” Stephen McGlynn, a Belleville attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "The thing I found so troubling is (that) it wasn't just one person in management, it wasn't just one department (acting questionably). It seemed to transcend a number of departments and a number of people in management."
The lawsuit comes a month since the 1,100-worker casino _ this city's biggest private employer and largest revenue source _ christened its new digs, becoming the first of Illinois' casinos to move away from a river to an inland manmade basin.
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| Source:
Blackjack2002 News Staff
| Friday, 7 September 2007 |
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