Marina Nikolova
Xanthi and Rio Casinos in dismissed 32 employees in recent weeks. According to the president of the union of the Casino Rio employees Dimitris Karageorgopoulos, the company has been profitable in recent years and staff is needed. The Rio and Xanthi Casinos are the property of THEROS INTERNATIONAL GAMING, which is part of Marfin Investment Group owned by the businessman Andreas Vgenopoulos.
Тo protect the employees’ interests the unionist Dimitris Karageorgopоulos went on hunger strike which continues and the employees blocked the entrance to the casino and refused to work during the weekend, although flow of customers was expected because of holidays.
They said from the casino management that they have financial difficulties which forced them to dismiss employees who have worked in the casino near Patras for 15 years. Employees have a different opinion. According to them, through dismissals the management wants to intimidate the croupiers who obtained through court the right to be paid by the casino the amount of 4.5 million euros from tips. The court order is not subject to appeal, said Karageorgopoulos, and it states that Rio Casino should pay the remaining employees 6.5 million euros for travel expenses made in recent years. At the end of February the company began to pay its obligations to employees with the first installment of over one million euros, reports Karageorgopoulos’ blog.
What were the positions held by the dismissed employees and what are the excuses of the company for their dismissal?
They were cleaners, employees who count the money at the casino, waiters, administrative staff. There is no special reason for the dismissal. They say there are financial difficulties and nothing more was explained to us. In our view, there is something else behind the dismissal. Probably they want our union to abandon the employees’ claim against the owners since the claims are about many millions of euros the casino owes the staff. The employees filed a suit several years ago and there are already final and unappealable court orders requiring the company to repay employees several million euros from tips which were illegally detained as well as travel costs which were not paid. Now, when the time has come to pay its obligations the company fires employees so as to extort and intimidate the staff to give up and not to encash the money. The company has illegally detained around 4.5 million euros from tips over the past decade which are payable to the croupiers. The obligations to the rest of the staff amount to around 6.5 million euros which is money for travel costs. The dismissed employees were in the company since its opening and have worked for it for 15 years. Currently, the casino has 282 employees.
Will you go on with the hunger strike?
I will be on hunger strike until my colleagues who were dismissed are back at work. As chairman of the casino employees and their representative I am obliged to fight for their rights. The casino management refused to speak with us, they didn’t propose anything. In recent days, when we started to protest, the casino management began throwing mud on the dismissed employees saying they were bandits, uncaring, relentless. We want to find a solution, to have our colleagues back at work, to enter into dialogue with the company and discuss the problems they probably have but didn’t tell us.
What problems do you think the casino may have for which you are not informed?
We can not know. The reports published in the past eight years show net profits of over 70 million euros. The company is profitable until 2009. We don’t have information for 2010 because the report is not published yet.
You were on strike during the last holiday weekend when the casino expected large flow of customers. Should we expect that you would continue with the strikes?
We will protest outside the casino every day. We have evidence in our support and we have to win this protest and bring employees back to their jobs. We will not go on strike for now but we do not exclude this in the future.
How the crisis affected the visits to the casino?
The visits have increased. But economic capability of each player has decreased. The fact is that there were 5500 visits more in the first two months of the year compared to the number of visits in January and February 2010. If we had 18,000 visitors in these months last year, this year their number increased to 23 000 people.
What are the most popular games for your guests and what are the amounts played?
Players prefer mostly Black Jack, Roulette and the latest game Texas Holdem Poker which is preferred by young players. The average visitor plays with around 150-200 euros. There is a slight drop in the casino’s turnover because the average amount that visitors play decreased. We think that this decline is temporary as there are many illegal Internet casinos in the country currently. But if the Ministry of Finance regulates the gambling market as it intends to do with the bill which is ready to be voted, we will not face this unfair competition.
You say in your petition of requests that the quality of the services offered in the casino is poor, so you need to get back to work dismissed employees. What does poor service quality mean?
The casino is not clean. The visitors play at a table and there are dirty ashtrays on it for hours, there are no waiters to serve the visitors on time and bring them a cup of coffee or a drink. Customers usually wait an hour and fifteen minutes to bring them coffee, which makes them nervous, of course. They spend a lot of money in the casino without being served properly. Either way, there is no sufficient staff at the casino, and we can not offer what customers want after the dismissal. But when a customer comes and spends 200, 300, 500 euros he or she wants at least to drink a cup of coffee when it was ordered.
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