December 28th, 2010 – by Glen Farmer
For the past few months, casino workers in Mississippi have been attempting to get their piece of the BP oil spill relief fund. Many casino workers had applied for the company’s compensation fund, which led up to a bitter battle.
Casino workers had made the claim that due to the oil spill, tourism to the Mississippi casinos had dropped due to their proximity to the cost. While some workers, such as those in restaurants, had been given relief, casino dealers and other tipped positions had been left out of the claims.
A series of protests had began in order to go against BP’s decision. The protests were held to demand financial restitution to tipped employees in the casinos.
According to many of the casino workers, their tips and income had dropped significantly.
According to reports, hundreds of casino employees had been denied their claims by the company. The claims have allegedly been denied due to gaming revenue reports showing that revenue had not been seriously impacted from the time frame before the oil spill in the gulf to the time after the oil spill.
Casino employees have asserted that just because gaming revenue has remained stable, this doesn’t meant that tips and other forms of voluntary spending are not remaining high.
Controversy continued when some employees had received compensation and others had not. Some had even received enormous amounts of money due to potentially damaged wages, while others received nothing at all.
To date, many employees have received nothing, but they are still fighting to receive their funds.