Big win for BCGEU members at Starlight Casino

BCGEU/NUPGE will take action when an employer disrespects and breaches the clear language of a collective agreement.

Vancouver (19 Jan. 2016) — Members of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) who work at Starlight Casino have won an important arbitration victory that includes significant back pay.

Workers suffer losses as employer tries to back out of collective agreement commitments

In December 2014, Starlight Casino informed the BCGEU/NUPGE that it would no longer be offering poker as part of its casino operations. Starlight then issued layoff notices to its poker dealers.

The layoff notice gave the laid off workers three choices:

• a recall option to a different position with significantly reduced wages (for 29 dealers this amounted to a 14 per cent wage reduction of approximately $2.37 per hour)
• a return to work as a casual employee (with less pay and no job security) 
• an end to their employment at the casino.

BCGEU/NUPGE filed a grievance challenging both the layoffs and the wage reduction.

Artibrator rules in favour of union

On January 8, the arbitrator found in favour of our union. The collective agreement was breached and the employer did not have the authority to violate the payment structure it had negotiated with the union.

In the decision, the arbitrator noted that BCGEU/NUPGE had offered to begin collective bargaining before the expiry of the collective agreement in response to the casino's concerns about declining poker revenues.

The message to Starlight Casino was loud and clear: BCGEU/NUPGE will take action when an employer disrespects and breaches the clear language of a collective agreement.

NUPGE 

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 360,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE