Station Casinos testing workers for coronavirus, antibodies
Station Casinos has started testing its workers for COVID-19.
All company and lease partner team members will receive both antigen and antibody COVID-19 tests before returning to work, the company said Wednesday. It’s unclear when testing began, but the casino operator said in a statement that testing “has commenced” at six of its properties. Testing will be paid for by the company, and processed with MedicWest/AMR and Quest Diagnostics.
Joseph Muradian, an assistant security supervisor at Palace Station, said he felt put at ease after being tested and producing negative results.
“Without being tested, you have that unknown,” he said. “It was a very convenient, quick process.”
But some Station Casino employees, like Santa Fe employee Peter Blaine, told the Review-Journal that they were unhappy with the decision to bring workers back on site for testing.
“Testing this early is pointless,” he said. “I’m all for testing all the employees before they go back to work, but if you don’t have an opening date and they don’t reopen before four, five, six weeks, how many people are going to get the virus in that period?”
It’s unclear how many employees will be tested. The company had roughly 14,000 employees as of Jan. 31, according to its latest annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but staffing reductions announced May 1 affected approximately 39 percent of its full-time workforce.
Wednesday’s company statement repeated that Station Casinos plans to reopen its properties in phases, starting with Red Rock Resort, Green Valley Ranch Resort, Santa Fe Station, Boulder Station, Palace Station and Sunset Station with its Wildfire division properties “when permitted to do so by governmental authorities.”
It plans to assess the performance of those properties before reopening the Palms, Texas Station, Fiesta Henderson and Fiesta Rancho.
Contact Bailey Schulz at bschulz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0233. Follow @bailey_schulz on Twitter.
