Wynn Las Vegas Disability Claim Outcome Potentially Influenced by Early Neutral Evaluation Verdict
Wynn Las Vegas, the operator of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore casino resorts on the Vegas Strip, is under dispute in a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by a cocktail server, Jennifer Bandiero, in December.
Bandiero, in her lawsuit in Nevada's US District Court, accuses Wynn of failing to cater to her health problems and alleges that she was penalized for taking medical leaves.
Her lawyers claim that Bandiero worked for Wynn since 2008 despite dealing with lupus, a disease where the body's immune system wrongly attacks healthy tissue. Lupus, affecting over 200K individuals annually in the US, leads to joint and muscle pain, swelling, fatigue, mouth sores, and skin rashes, among other symptoms. Lupus tends to affect women aged 15 to 44 and is more common in Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics. Women are 10 times more likely to have lupus than men.
Bandiero also claims she was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome, which causes dry eyes and mouth, and rheumatoid arthritis, causing swelling of joints, back, and muscles.
Background Information
Bandiero worked part-time at the Wynn casino until she sought a full-time position in November 2018. Despite having the seniority to win the shift bid, Wynn allegedly overlooked her, stating it was doing her a "favor" by not promoting her full-time due to her medical conditions.
Bandiero and her attorneys filed a Discrimination Charge with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission (NERC).
According to her complaint, Wynn started barring her from taking breaks at the end of 2020, making her work "for up to 10 hours straight" without any breaks. Furthermore, Wynn began requiring Bandiero to take on additional tasks beyond her role as a cocktail server, including food running duties. This increased her stress levels, exacerbating her health issues, including her ability to focus, communicate, and perform physical activities.
Wynn granted Bandiero a medical leave of absence in June 2021 and reached a Settlement Agreement through NERC in December of the same year. The agreement allows her to stay on medical leave until her doctor clears her to work, with or without accommodations.
Threat of Termination
Bandiero claims that Wynn's ADA Department informed her on March 9, 2022, that her employment would end at the month's end unless she returned to work with a doctor's release. Her doctor requested an extension of the leave until Sept. 14, 2022, which was granted. The leave was later extended into 2023, but on March 1, 2023, a Wynn attorney informed her that there would be no further extensions of her leave of absence. Since then, Bandiero claims she has been unable to agree on accommodations to return to a five-day work schedule, allegedly due to Wynn's resistance.
"Wynn Las Vegas' persistent pressure on Ms. Bandiero to constantly submit new medical documentation, coupled with demands for her to disclose her medical condition in explicit detail and provide an exact timeline for when she will no longer require accommodations (treating her accommodations as a burden), has had a devastating emotional impact on Ms. Bandiero," the complaint stated.
Wynn has denied any wrongdoing and stated in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the company complies with accommodation requests in accordance with the law and has done so with Bandiero.
Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts agreed in March to evaluate the allegations through an Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE), which provides a balanced and unbiased evaluation of the dispute aimed at facilitating a settlement between the parties. Albregts completed his evaluation last month, but his findings are yet to be made public.
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