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R.I. labor agency sides with Twin River workers on OT pay

1:37 PM Thu, Oct 29, 2009 | Permalink
By Paul Grimaldi

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The state Department of Labor and Training has ordered the Twin River slot parlor to give a group of its nonunion employees overtime pay for working Sundays, according to a decision released Thursday afternoon.

The ruling affects about 60 employees who have various duties at the slot parlor in Lincoln, some of which they are assigned to do on Sundays. The workers, some of them security guards, first complained about not being paid overtime back in January 2009, but a decision on the issue had been held up for months after UTGR Inc., the company that operates Twin River, filed for bankruptcy.

On Sept. 25, a judge in U.S. Bankruptcy Court freed the labor department to issue its ruling, which says the guards and others are due the overtime pay because the slot parlor offered pari-mutuel betting on races on Sundays.

Twin River suspended live dog racing in August and stopped offering simulcast betting on Sundays in September. But it still owes the nonunion employees money for Sundays they worked in the past, the DLT said.