Well here's a frightening new development on the employment front

[The empressof all]

A new tactic for keeping wages low and throwing out the "old".


"A new casino set to open in Atlantic City, N.J., has announced it will set term limits for its front-line staff. When employees' terms run out, they'll have to go through the hiring process again. The casino says the policy will keep its service fresh. Others say the company is taking advantage of a tough job market.

From bellhops to dealers, employees of the new casino — called Revel — will be hired for terms from four to six years. After that, they have to reapply for their jobs and compete against other candidates."

http://m.npr.org/news/front/146000685

[Zalatix]

1. holy s$!t!!!

[cyberswede]

2. That is hideous! nt

[mike_c]

3. if, after four or six years you have to reapply for your job...

...then what's to stop you from reapplying more generally, and letting OTHER potential employers compete for access to the skills you learned working for these turkeys...?

[saras]

15. What skills? You'll have no skills valued by anyone but them - they make sure of it

[mike_c]

23. still, one would think that experience in the business must count for something...

...and if they have to reapply, why not reapply to every casino in town? Let them compete with one another for "experienced" employees.

[HughBeaumont]

4. And the worst part about it is . . .

. . . there'll be queues of people willing to sign on to this bullshit and completely regressive process because A job is better than NO job.

Yes, this IS taking gross advantage of an employERs market.

The U.S. is going to come to a fiery and ugly end if the people would only figure out where that fist is REALLY coming from.

[redqueen]

5. They've been warning about this for years now.

In the future, they want all jobs to be temp/contract jobs.

[ellisonz]

24. +1000

[Speck Tater]

6. Kind of puts employers on an equal footing with elected officials.

But where that policy is really needed is the marriage contract. Think of how much more considerate spouses would be of each other if the contract had to be renewed every few years.

[stopbush]

7. And if you're rehired, you'll no doubt go back to "new hire" wages, wiping out any raises

you received over those 4-6 years.

I lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years, and casino owners did that all the time - lay off long-time workers and hire newbies at the lowest wage possible. And Vegas is a town with very strong unions.

[justabob]

8. they are shooting themselves in the foot, I think

I can't see how that is going to save money. I mean I get it that nobody is going to get raises etc, but turnover is a pain in the ass generally. Training newbies, the paperwork, managing whatever certifications employees need. Service *might* be better for this method, but more likely employees will be losing their jobs about the same time they are actually getting good at whatever they do.

[Enrique]

10. they probably cut corners on the training

put as much on the employee as possible, maybe hire huge training classes, give them minimal training, and then cut all but a handful, probably veterans in the industry. It's a business model that only works with huge masses of desperate workers to run through the process.

[justabob]

17. no doubt

but that costs too.... food/bev mistakes, slowness, customer complaints, comps. You're right that it only works if you have masses of desperate workers. I don't think it will work for long though. Service does matter, and they will piss off customers enough or make it so difficult that they don't come back. You know?

[appleannie1]

9. That is stupid. I hope they can only get people that don't have a work ethic to work for them.

[arcane1]

11. Notice this only applies to 'front line' staff

Those sitting in their plush upper-floor offices don't have to deal with this bullshit.

My employer has been going wild with hiring contractors, and treating them like 2nd-class citizens. We have contractors here that have been with us for 3 and 4 years (longer than many of the employees), and they are never invited when we have holiday lunches, etc. And 2011 saw a huge increase, company-wide, in this practice.

[redqueen]

21. Good point. It's only for the workers, not the management.

Ugh.

[rufus dog]

22. Happens all the time

I get hired to implement software or run a project for the client. Until the recent job, I had three in a row where myself and the contract team were not invited to any event. We would have team building sessions and invite the employers staff but it would not be reciprocated.

For me it is not a big issue, for the employers it creates a great deal of ill will with thier own employees. Had one job with a MAJOR (top five in cash on hand in the U.S.) where I took over a job that was staffed by all internal resources. Went live and was not invited to the go live lunch, so they saved twenty dollars. Two employees complained at the table with the CIO that I wasn't there and came back with an attitude. Took them aside and told them to stay calm, and schedule a lunch with just the small group of devlopers and business analysts. Billed the company two extra hours, paid for a nice luncheon, problem solved. The company lost money on the transaction and the core team got two lunches.

[FarCenter]

26. This has happened in the defense and aerospace industries for years.

They hire employees or engage contractor personnel when they get a big government contract, and they terminate them when the contract is over.

Same thing in many construction jobs.

Permanent employment is a thing of the past.

[RDANGELO]

12. That's suprising.

In an industry that relies heavily on security, I would bet that they have more instances of theft from employees since they would be less loyal to the employer. Loyal employees should be a high prioraty

[librechik]

13. Ah, More "New Normal" policies for us 21st century serfs.

Yeah, we'll be fighting each other over these jobs too. If the 1% continues to get its way (don't see anything strong enough to stop them on the horizon yet. Do you?)

[The empressof all]

14. No...I don't see things getting better

As long as the culture values bottom line, profit driven business practices employees will be viewed as commodities.

[JohnnyRingo]

16. They should advertise this to their customers if they think it's a positive policy.

Put it on the sign out front: "We fire our workers every six years whether they deserve it or not".

We know they won't, because the policy is designed only to lock workers into low wages. Since most casino gamblers are hourly workers wasting their money on vacation they'll be able to relate this happening to them at their job.

No one this side of a corporate boardroom can say this is a good idea, and I hope local unions make this policy clear to people considering a place to gamble. They aren't the only place in town waiting to steal our money.

on edit:
How do they even get away with this? Isn't this what the airlines tried to do decades ago to ensure young attractive stewardesses? Next the company will have a physical test where female workers have to fit under a desk.

[digonswine]

18. Ahh-the Menudo employment system-

assholes

[Initech]

19. And the GOP's war on the worker continues.

[grntuscarora]

20. Back in April of last year

the casinos were trying to get rid of the older female employees through humiliation--making them squeeze into too small uniforms.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x785800

Looks like this is a way to accomplish the purge of older women without having to answer to any age discrimination complaints.

[zabet]

25. Seems like

this would also be used by employers to not offer any benefits as contract and temp employers are not 'full time eligible for ins. and bennies employees.

[TwilightGardener]

27. High turnover used to be considered a bad thing--a problem to solve.

I suppose because these are low-skilled workers, they figure if they get 5 years out of them, they've more than gotten their money's worth out of their training and experience--but they haven't yet gotten expensive in terms of raises or benefits (I guess they can't be vested in any retirement plans, either?). 4-5 years must be the sweet spot to can people and make them start over.

[LynneSin]

28. in the hospitality industry - experience pays

'Fresh' means new and inexperience and the service tends to be lower than what you could expect from an experienced staff.

As someone who worked in a restaurant, we had regulars that came to dine at our place 1-2 times a week and they would only come on the days that their favorite waiters were working and only wanted them to wait on them. The hostesses greeted these people by name and the bartenders could mix their drink to perfection. If you are constantly replacing staff you lose the ability to really get to know your customers and create an environment where they would want to return again and again.

You have a staff that rotates regularly, you lose that experience and familiarity that makes people want to return to your place again and again. With a casino, a player wants to return to their favorite dealers and see familiar faces. You keep replacing a staff like that the regulars will just go elsewhere for their business.

And this is Atlantic City, the training these people receive on the job at this place will help them get hired for permanent jobs in better casinos.