Lawsuit filed
An MGM Springfield dealer has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that he has regularly received payments that are lower than minimum wage.
The dealer in question is Shawn Connors. He has worked at the casino since it first opened at the end of August 2018. This lawsuit was filed at the US District Court of Massachusetts.
Connors believes he should be getting paid more money than his employer currently gives him. In this federal lawsuit, Connors says he is paid about $5 an hour because he also receives tips.
Connors remains an employee
There is no indication as to whether or not Connors would have started working at this casino if he knew beforehand about the exact details of the employer’s pay structure.
There was no indication through the lawsuit filing as to how much Connors makes through tips. Despite protesting this base pay package, Connors is still working at the casino.
The attorney working on behalf of Connors is Benjamin Knox Steffans. He says that his client’s desire is
like all employees, that they’ll be paid consistent with federal wage and hour laws.”
Despite this comment, this does not appear to be the path this case is heading towards.
Seeking a class action
Steffans has made a request to the court for this case to be considered as a class action lawsuit. He alleges that more than one hundred MGM Springfield employees have the same issue as Connors.
An additional accusation is that the casino company underpays those who work overtime. It also alleges that employee licensing fees are deducted improperly from wage packets.
No specific sum has been outlined in the filing for the damages the plaintiff is seeking. The filing simply states that any damages should account for the difference in pay between what the workers actually earn and what they are entitled to as per federal law. It also seeks interest and all attorney fees and associated costs to be covered by MGM Springfield.
MGM Springfield responds
There has yet to be an official response in court from the MGM Springfield. However, there was a statement made to local media by the casino company, which simply stated:
Having just received this filing, we will investigate and respond accordingly.”
The MGM casino is only one of two commercial casinos in operation in Massachusetts. The other is the Encore Boston Harbor Casino.
There have been a few issues since the MGM Springfield opened its doors in August 2018. This includes struggling with underage gambling, increasing crime rates, gaming revenue falling below targets and lawsuits over blackjack games.