El Conquistador Hotel, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 27, 1970

186 N.L.R.B. 123 (N.L.R.B. 1970)

EL CONQUISTADOR HOTEL, INC. 123
El Conquistador Hotel, Inc. and Union de Tronquistas
de Puerto Rico, Local 901 , International Brother-
hood of Teamsters , Chauffeurs, Warehousemen
and Helpers of America, Petitioner.
Sheraton Puerto Rico Corporation d/b/a Puerto Rico
Sheraton Hotel ; Hilton International Co. d/b/a
Caribe Hilton Hotel ; Hilton of San Juan, Inc.
d/b/a San Jeronimo Hilton Hotel ; Executive
House Inc. d/b/a Condado Beach Hotel ; Hilton
Hotel International, Inc. d/b/a Mayaguez Hilton
Hotel and Asociacion de Empleados de Casinos de
Puerto Rico, Petitioner. Cases 24-RC-3968,
24-RC-3965, 24-RC-3969, 24-RC-3970,
24-RC-3971, and 24-RC-4070
October 27, 1970
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELEC-
TIONS
By CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS
FANNING, BROWN, AND JENKINS
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section
9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amend-
ed, hearings were held before Hearing Officer Joseph
M. Chandri. Following the hearings, these cases were
transferred to the National Labor Relations Board in
Washington, D.C., pursuant to Section 102.67 of the
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula-
tions and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as
amended. Thereafter, the Petitioners and Employers
filed briefs.
The Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearings
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the
briefs, the Board finds:
1. The Employers are engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate
the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to
represent certain employees of the Employers.
3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning
the representation of certain employees of the
Employers within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioners' primary requests are for sepa-
rate units of casino cashiers or, in the alternative, that
1 The San Jeronimo Hilton, the Condado Beach Hotel , and the Caribe
Hilton (together with the El San Juan Hotel which is not involved in these
proceedings) are members of a multiemployer association which has
recognized and bargained with a hotel and restaurant employees' union not
involved in this proceeding for a unit of service and maintenance
employees employed in the Employers' hotel, restaurant and bar
operations, with casino employees being specifically excluded.
2 In general , casino waiters and casino doormen have also been
included in the croupier unit . However, in some units either the casino
the casino cashiers be given self-determination elec-
tions to determine whether they wish to be included in
the same units with the croupiers presently represent-
ed by the Petitioners.
Each of the Employers operates a hotel.in Puerto
Rico in which there is a gambling casino. Pursuant to
Board certifications, each of the Employers, with the
exception of the Mayaguez Hilton Hotel, has recog-
nized and bargained with various unions for (1) units
of service and maintenance employees of the hotel,
restaurant, and bar operations,' with casino employ-
ees being specifically excluded, and (2) units of
croupiers2 with casino cashiers being specifically
excluded.3
However, there are many employees employed in
each of the Employer's hotel operations who are
presently unrepresented. For example, at the Caribe
Hilton, the night auditors and the security employees
are unrepresented; at the El Conquistador Hotel,
credit department employees, receiving employees,
storeroom employees, payroll employees, cost ac-
counting employees, timekeepers, accounts receivable
and payable employees, income auditing employees,
and secretarial and clerical employees are unrepre-
sented; at the San Jeronimo Hilton, the timekeepers
and the night auditors are unrepresented; at the
Sheraton Hotel, all accounting department employ-
ees, office clerical, and secretaries are unrepresented;
and at the Mayaguez Hilton, the auditor, night
auditor, general cashier, lifeguards, timekeepers, cost
accountants, reservation clerks, city ledger clerk, and
secretaries to the general manager are unrepresented.
However, it is not entirely clear from the record
exactly which employees who work in the casino, in
addition to the casino cashiers, are unrepresented. It
appears that the doormen at the El Conquistador
Hotel and Puerto Rico Sheraton, the relief doormen
at the Mayaguez Hilton Hotel, and the casino waiters
at the Caribe Hilton are the only other unrepresented
casino employees at these hotels. The doormen at the
San Jeronimo Hilton voted against representation
with the croupiers in a self-determination election.
Facts
In general, the facts of each of the cases are quite
similar except for the Condado Beach Hotel case
which is discussed below. Therefore, the El Conquis-
tador Hotel operations are described below and,
waiters or the casino doormen have been specifically excluded. At the San
Jeronimo Hilton and the Condado Beach Hotel , where the casino doormen
were originally specifically excluded , pursuant to a later Decision and
Direction of Election by the Regional Director, self-determination elections
were directed among the doormen to determine if they wished to be
included in the unit of croupiers.
3 The Mayaguez Hilton has recognized and bargained for such units as
a result of voluntary recognition.
186 NLRB No. 24
124 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
except for the minor differences noted, will be used to
describe the operations of the other Employers also,
and the role played by their casino cashiers in such
operations.
The casino is a separate department of the hotel and
is headed by a casino manager who has the authority
and responsibility for its operation. Dealers or
croupiers, casino cashiers,4 doormen, housemen,
pantrymen, and waiters work in the casino. The
casino is arranged with gambling tables surrounding a
pit area which is the casino cashiers' work area.
The four to six casino cashiers are part of the
accounting section of the administrative and account-
ing department, and are hired, disciplined, fired, and
have their working conditions controlled by the
comptroller.5 The casino cashier supervisor, Mr.
Aponte, is the immediate supervisor of the casino
cashiers and reports directly to the comptroller.
However, the casino manager has the ultimate say
over such things as dress, grooming, and behavior.
The casino cashiers work an 8-hour day, 40-hour
week, while the croupiers work a 7-hour day, 35-hour
week. However, both casino cashiers and croupiers
are paid twice a month by check and receive the same
bonus and per diem. Other accounting department
employees are paid weekly and do not receive a bonus
or per diem. The salaries of the casino cashiers are
charged to the casino department rather than to the
accounting section. For every 40 minutes the croupi-
ers work, they receive 20 minutes off, while casino
cashiers work a straight 8 or 9 hour shift without even
a lunch break.6 Croupiers and casino cashiers share
tips and both wear tuxedos which are furnished by the
hotel.
The casino cashiers prepare reports for the comp-
troller who promulgates the accounting procedures
and controls to be exercised by the casino cashiers in
the performance of their work. Each has his own
vault, but the combination of such vaults is known
only by the head cashier and the senior assistant
cashier. However, a key, which is also necessary to
open the vault, is kept by the casino manager.
The casino cashiers perform substantially all their
work on the casino floor. They interview guests who
apply for credit and "gather data with respect to
credit and make as much data as possible, either what
4 The Employer also employs food and beverage cashiers who work in
the bars and restaurants , front office cashiers who work in the front office
of the hotel, and cashiers who work in the front office at night (called night
auditors) There has been one transfer in the last year from a food and
beverage cashier to a casino cashier.
5 At the San Jeronimo, the casino manager authorizes cashiers to take
time off , at the Puerto Rico Sheraton the casino manager authorizes time
off, sick leave , and vacations for cashiers, and, in one instance,
recommended that a cashier be given a wage increase
6 It should be pointed out, however, that these differences and the
differences in health benefits, pensions , etc, may be due to the fact that the
croupiers' working conditions and benefits are established by a collective-
bargaining agreement while the casino cashiers' working conditions and
is obtained from [the casino cashier's] files or what he
can obtain from calling other casinos on the telephone
or what he can obtain directly from the client, and to
pass all of this data on to the casino manager, who
actually makes this decision." Each extension of
credit has to be approved by the casino manager.
Upon reporting for work each night, one casino
cashier, usually the head casino cashier, receives a
"bank" for which he must account. After credit has
been approved for a customer, the cashier who is
responsible for the bank gives the money to another
casino cashier who takes the money and payout slips
to the croupier who hands it over to the customer who
buys chips from the croupier. The payout slip must be
signed by the casino cashier who is responsible for the
bank, the cashier who actually takes the money to the
croupier, and the casino manager who must approve
the credit.?
The croupiers, casino cashiers, doormen, and casino
management personnel must be licensed under Puerto
Rico law. Each position requires a different license
and the qualifications for each license are different.
Croupiers must attend a government sponsored
course, while casino cashiers receive on-the-job
training.
In recruiting cashiers, the accounting department
surveys the other cashiers in the hotel to determine if
they have the requisite qualifications. Any such
cashier selected must make application for a license,
and, upon receipt thereof, he reports to the casino for
duty.
Both the croupiers and the casino cashiers fill out
their own timecards. The casino manager initials these
cards, and the casino cashiers' cards are sent to the
comptroller for approval of overtime while the cards
of the croupiers are sent directly to the payroll
department.
The Condado Beach Hotel
The cashiers at the Condado Beach Hotel8 work in
a cage outside of but near the pit area. Accordingly,
customers go to the cage to get credit and receive
money - the cashier does not take the money to the
customer. The Condado Beach Hotel contends that
the casino cashier is authorized to issue credit up to
benefits are established solely by the Employer
' The El Conquistador, the San Jeronimo Hilton , and the Canbe Hilton
also utilize computers in their casino operations All transactions of the
casino are maintained in the computer At each table is a set of keys for all
the transactions made at that table which the croupier is responsible for
operating and which has a read-out at the cashier's desk The computer is
also used for the extension of credit and requires the cooperation of the
cashiers and croupiers
8 The Condado Beach Hotel has only one regular cashier and one relief
cashier The relief cashier works 2 days a week as a casino cashier (the days
the regular cashier is off) and works 3 days a week collecting bad debts
under the direct supervision of the Credit Manager.
EL CONQUISTADOR HOTEL, INC. 125
$5,000. However, Condado's Casino Manager Bird
testified:
[The casino cashier] must distinguish between two
kinds of credit. One, that is a credit already
established probably for years, and in that,
according to the card of that person, and by
personal knowledge the cashier already knows
what amount of credit that person wants. If he is a
known customer and he is good and his credit has
not been cancelled and has an original request for
$5,000, the cashier, without calling anyone will
grant that man $5,000 credit. [However,] originally
the casino manager and the credit department
[authorize cashiers to extend such credit.]
With respect to a new customer, Casino Manager Bird
testified:
A new customer, as I said before, makes his
request for credit, it is cleared through the credit
office, if it cannot be cleared during that night, and
then when that approval come from the credit
department, then the cashier has the discretion.
[To determine whether credit can be granted on
the same night it is requested], [y]ou go by many
factors. In other words, by the person's creden-
tials , his appearance and we grant him partial
credit for the amount he requests. Say the amount
requested is $1,000. We say we will accomodate
you for tonight for $200 until we clear your credit.
I may [clear] it, or the cashier may [clear] it, so it
is cleared through the credit department. Banks
are closed at night. If he gives a casino reference, a
local casino reference, the duty of the cashier is to
call that casino and ask for the man's status.
Casino cashiers are bonded while croupiers are not.
Casino cashiers are paid on a weekly basis, but
croupiers are paid every 15 days, except that, as
mentioned above, casino cashiers and croupiers at the
El Conquistador are both paid twice a month. At the
Condado Beach Hotel, however, the casino manager
authorizes overtime and vacations which are author-
ized by the Comptroller at the El Conquistador Hotel.
Discussion and Conclusions
In opposing the petitions, the Employers make the
following three contentions:
(1) The casino cashiers are managerial employees.
(2) The casino cashiers do not constitute such a
homogeneous and coherent group with skills so
specialized as to warrant their separate representa-
tion.
(3) There is not a sufficient community of interest
between the cashiers and the croupiers to warrant the
granting of a self-determination election to the casino
cashiers to determine if they wish to be represented in
the same unit with the croupiers.
The Employers ground their assertion that the
casino cashiers are managerial employees and, there-
fore, not entitled to union representation on the
following factors:
(1) Casino cashiers are involved exclusively in the
financial operations of the casino.
(2) They have access to extremely confidential
information.
(3) They have control and custody of enormous
amounts of money and are bonded employees.
(4) They have authority to extend credit to patrons,
cash checks, verify credit in situations where credit
has not been previously established, and in their
discretion extend credit within the limits which they
feel proper and even to cancel the credit extended to a
patron.
In Eastern Camera and Photo Corp., 140 NLRB 569,
571, the Board stated:
The Board has defined managerial employees as
those who formulate, determine, and effectuate an
Employer's policies. [American Federation of
Labor, etc., 120 NLRB 969, 973] . . . Moreover,
managerial status is not necessarily conferred
upon employees because they possess some au-
thority to determine, within established limits,
prices and customer discounts. [E jer Co., 108
NLRB 1417, 1420]. In fact, the determination of
an employee's "managerial" status depends upon
the extent of his discretion [Kitsap County Automo-
bile Dealers Association, 124 NLRB 933 ], although
even the authority to exercise considerable discre-
tion does not render an employee managerial
where his decision must conform to the employer's
established policy. [Albert Lea Cooperative Cream-
ery Association, 119 NLRB 817, 822.]
In these cases, it appears that the only discretion
exercised by the casino cashiers is the extension of
credit. In some of these hotels, however, such
extension of credit must be approved by the credit
manager or the casino manager or his assistants. In
the hotels in which the cashier does extend credit on
his own, he does it only after following the hotel's
established policy, i.e., he calls other hotels about the
patron's credit rating, he checks the patron's credit
cards and checks his own files for a credit rating, etc.
Thus, it appears that the casino cashiers neither
formulate, determine, nor effectuate these Employers'
policies and that their functions involve the exercise
of limited discretion which borders on routine
performance. Therefore, we find that the casino
cashiers in these cases are not managerial employees.
As previously stated, the Petitioners request that if
the casino cashiers in these cases do not constitute
separate appropriate units, they should be given the
opportunity to decide whether they wish to be added
126 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
to the existing croupiers units. We find merit in the
Petitioners' latter request.
In El San Juan Hotel Corporation, d/b/a El San Juan
Hotel, 179 NLRB No. 45, the petitioning union also
sought a separate unit of casino cashiers or, in the
alternative, a self-determination election to determine
if the cashiers wished to be included in the same unit
with the croupiers who were represented by the
petitioning union. On facts very similar to those
presented by these cases, the Board found that the
casino cashiers, apart from the other unrepresented
employees, shared a substantial community of inter-
est with the croupiers and were entitled to a self-
determination election to determine if they wished to
be represented in the same unit with the croupiers.
Since the factual differences between these cases
and El San Juan Hotel, supra, are so minor as to be of
no substantive importance, we find that El San Juan
Hotel constitutes controlling precedent for these cases
and warrants the direction of self-determination
elections granting the casino cashiers the opportunity
9 To the extent that El Dorado Club, 151 NLRB 597, and 105 Casino
Corporation d/b/a Nevada Club, 178 NLRB No 15, are inconsistent with
our holdings in El San Juan Hotel Corporation, d/b/a El San Juan Hotel,
179 NLRB No. 45 , and herein , they are hereby overruled
10 In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the oppor tunity to
be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the elections should have access to lists of voters and their
addresses which may be used to communicate with them Excelsior
Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB 1236, N L R B V Wyman-Gordon Company,
to determine whether they wish to be represented in
the same units with the croupiers.9
Accordingly, we find the following groups in each of
the cases appropriate for the purposes of self-determi-
nation elections.
All casino cashiers employed in each of the
separate hotel gambling casinos in San Juan,
Mayaguez , and Fajardo , Puerto Rico , excluding
all other employees and supervisors as defined by
the Act.
If a majority of the employees in each voting group
votes for the Union which presently represents the
same hotel's croupiers they will be taken to have
indicated their desire to be included in the existing
unit of croupiers currently represented by such Union
at that hotel and the Regional Director will issue
certifications to that effect.
[Direction of Elections 10 omitted from publication.]
394 U S 759 Accordingly, it is hereby directed that election eligibility lists,
containing the names and addresses of all the eligible voters must be filed
by the Employers with the Regional Director for Region 24 within 7 days
of the date of this Decision and Direction of Elections . The Regional
Director shall make these lists available to all parties to the elections. No
extension of time to file these lists shall be granted by the Regional
Director except in extraordinary circumstances Failure to comply with this
requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper
objections are filed.