Station Casinos reached a settlement in a suit filed on behalf of thousands of current and former employees who claimed they were shortchanged in their pay by the gaming company.  The suit was filed about one week before the company’s bankruptcy petition, which is facing $6 billion in claims.  The workers alleges that if an employee checks in early for a shift, he or she is not credited with the time, and the same holds true of the worker who leaves later.  The Casino company has agreed to set $1.1 million aside to pay the employees for 180 days prior to filing for bankruptcy.  In addition, the parties agreed to value the remaining unsecured claim in the lawsuit at $5 million covering workers dating to 2005.  Article

A “rounding” pay system operates in a way that by enabling the computer system to clock time so that if an hourly worker arrived up to 14 minutes before the quarter hour, the computer automatically rounded that time forward to the nearest quarter hour. Same if the worker checked out past his or her appointed time, the time is rounded back to the nearest quarter.  Although this issue never reached a trier of fact in the Nevada District Court where the suit was filed, the case may serve as an example of the danger of using such a pay system.  For example, if a worker clocked in 14 minutes early and out of shift 14 minutes late, and that employee worked a minimum wage ($7.25) job 5 days a week, the worker would stand to lose over $16 a week, amounting to $832 a year.  A large corporation that employs over 500 hourly employees stands to gain a significant amount of money in a given year by using this type of pay system.

The attorneys of Leeds Morelli and Brown, P.C. are experienced and determined employment law practitioners who will fight hard to make sure your rights are preserved.  If you find your employer is engaging in questionable discriminatory behavior you can contact an attorney at Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C. for a free consultation at 1-888-585-4658 or our firm’s website at www.lmblaw.com.