HIGH STAKES GAMBLE FOR TRIBAL CASINO WORKERS: SACRAMENTO’S LAST CHANCE TO PROTECT THEIR HEALTH AND SAFETY

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Marianne P. Brown, MPH

Denise De Groff, a maintenance engineer at the Agua Caliente casino in Palm Springs was recently dealt a bad hand. Last year she was told to clean the drains in a women’s restroom, and because she was the only female engineer in this 130,000-square-foot casino Denise had to perform the job of two people without assistance. Not trained on how to operate the maintenance equipment alone, her gloves became entangled in the drain de-clogging tool she was using. She injured her hands trying to get free and later had to have surgery on both.. Denise still takes pain medication and has not regained full use of either hand.

In 2005, 4.2 million U.S. workers experienced a workplace injury or illness which required more than first aid. Many of the incidents which caused these could have been prevented by proper training and use of safety equipment. California’s regulatory agency, Cal-OSHA, has the strongest workplace protections compared with other state-plan states or Federal OSHA.

Yet, this month our elected representatives in Sacramento are poised to push away from the table when it comes to applying Cal-OSHA standards for the 14,000 thousand employees who work in 5 tribal casinos whose compacts with the state of California are currently being renegotiated for another 20-year term. These 5 Southern California casinos, it should be noted, are among the richest in the state, raking in an estimated $60 billion with these pending compacts.

Unlike the rest of California’s workforce, tribal casino employees are not automatically covered by state health and safety laws. Because the casinos are on tribal lands up until now they have been required to comply only with federal regulations – in this case, they must have workplace standards that are equivalent to Federal OSHA’s. In contrast, other tribes – such as Big Lagoon/Los Coyotes and Yurok -- with pending compacts but without casinos -- have agreed to be regulated by California’s more protective workplace standards.