EEOC Sues Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino for Disability Discrimination and Retaliation

LAS VEGAS – DTG Las Vegas, LLC; Fifth Street Gaming, LLC; and DTG Las Vegas Manager, LLC (collectively doing business as “Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino”) violated federal law by failing to provide reasonable accommodations to a class of employees with disabilities, interfering with employees’ rights, and retaliating against those who exercised their rights, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC, since at least 2018, Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino failed to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities including — but not limited to — levoscoliosis, sciatica and cancer. The EEOC further contends that Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino interfered with employees’ rights to ask for an accommodation and retaliated against employees who requested accommodations by subjecting them to over-scrutiny, threats of discipline, and, in one case, discharge. The company’s failure to accommodate and its interference with the rights to request an ADA accommodation led employees to feel that they had no choice but to quit.

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discriminating against workers due to a disability and not providing reasonable accommodations for them unless it causes the employer an undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. DTG Las Vegas LLC et al. dba Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino, Case No. Case No.: 2:23-cv-00510) in U.S. District Court for Nevada after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The EEOC seeks monetary damages for the victims, including compensatory and punitive damages, along with injunctive relief against the company to prevent such unlawful conduct in the future.

“The EEOC continues to see disability discrimination in the workplace, particularly where employers fail to provide reasonable accommodations as required under the ADA,” said Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Los Angeles District, whose jurisdiction includes Las Vegas.

Michael Mendoza, director of EEOC’s Las Vegas local office, said, “The ADA provides broad protections against reprisal to avoid employers preventing workers from coming forward and exercising their rights under the law. The EEOC takes such matters seriously and will continue to actively enforce this key federal law.”

For more information on disability discrimination, including reasonable accommodation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc-disability-related-resources. For more information on retaliation, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/retaliation.

If you believe you have been discriminated against at work, please contact the EEOC at 800-669-4000.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.