Casino de Buenos Aires ordered to pay former employee in dismissal case

A Buenos Aires labor court has ruled in favor of a former Casino de Buenos Aires table games supervisor who said the company had denied her access to its medical service. 

The casino operators must pay ARS679,796 ($443), plus interest, under the ruling.

Judge Alberto Miguel González of National Labor Court of First Instance No. 16 heard the case. The employee said she had repeatedly been turned away when trying to submit medical certificates to justify her absences.

She considered herself indirectly dismissed on November 3, 2017. The company said she had missed scheduled medical checks, but she said she had shown up but was not allowed in.

The worker had linked a cervical condition and vertigo syndrome to her duties supervising table games. After consulting a private traumatologist, she notified the company by telegram that she had been prescribed a further 15 days of rest.

The judge found that the company had recorded her absences as unnotified despite being informed of her illness. He also found that the employer had failed to provide sufficient evidence to challenge the reported continuation of her condition.

Two former employees testified that workers had been stopped at security turnstiles and that the company doctor had refused to accept medical certificates. The company challenged their testimony because both had pending lawsuits against it. 

He said their pending lawsuits did not invalidate their testimony, but meant it had to be examined more closely. A company manager also confirmed that employees had to pass through security turnstiles and contact the medical team before accessing the service.

The judge concluded that the employer had obstructed its own medical checks, giving the worker grounds to consider herself dismissed under Articles 242 and 246 of Argentina’s Labor Contract Law.

The award covers seniority compensation, payment instead of notice, other dismissal-related items and outstanding salary differences. The calculation used a monthly salary of ARS47,681 from August 2017.