Stueve Siegel Hanson Obtains Third Win in Quick Succession for Hourly Casino Employees
A third favorable ruling within one month was recently secured by Stueve Siegel Hanson and McClelland Law Firm in litigation against casino operators for failing to pay hourly employees properly under federal and state wage laws. On March 23, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri issued an Order in, MacMann v. Tropicana St. Louis, LLC, conditionally certifying four Fair Labor Standards Act collectives and granting class certification of two Missouri Minimum Wage Law classes.
Two years prior, in March 2019, the firms filed a lawsuit on behalf of a former employee of Lumiere Place Casino and Hotels in St. Louis, Missouri against the casino. The Complaint alleged Lumiere violated federal and state minimum wage laws by failing to properly notify MacMann, who had worked as a table games dealer, and similarly situated employees about its use of a tip credit, incorrectly calculating their overtime rates, improperly requiring employees to pay for Missouri gaming licenses that actually benefit the casino, and inappropriately rounding their time.
In the Order issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel conditionally certified four FLSA claims – failure to provide tip credit notice, unlawful wage deductions, miscalculation of overtime, and use of unlawful timeclock rounding system – and two Missouri Minimum Wage Law classes that consist of hundreds of tipped and minimum wage workers at Lumiere.
The full Order is available here.
Two other decisions were secured by Stueve Siegel Hanson and McClelland Law Firm in similar litigation just weeks before, showing the firms’ ongoing commitment (collectively, more than 20 cases) to enforce wage and hour laws at casinos around the country and ability to deliver hard-fought results for these employees:
- On March 12, 2021, Judge Gary A. Fenner, U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Missouri, issued an Order in Lockett v. Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. conditionally certifying a first-of-its-kind tip pooling claim across ten casinos and granting class and conditional certification of claims targeting wage deductions for gaming license fees; and
- On March 2, 2021 Judge Daniel D. Crabtree, U.S. District Judge for the District of Kansas, conditionally certified two Fair Labor Standards Act claims — failure to provide notice of the FLSA’s tip credit requirements and unlawful tip pooling across 13 casinos, respectively — in James v. Boyd Gaming Corporation.
George Hanson, Todd McGuire and Alexander Ricke of Stueve Siegel Hanson are representing the plaintiffs in all three cases. Click here to learn more about the firm’s experience advocating for tipped employees.
