From the Montevideo executive, it was explained that maintenance tasks were carried out during those hours.
Uruguay.- The Montevideo Municipality (IM) issued a statement amid the controversy arising from an investigation that revealed that 55 employees working at the municipal casino Parque Hotel were paid, in addition to their salaries, overtime, even while the casino was closed due to the Covid-19 health emergency.
"During the year 2020, the hotel had 87 employees and in 2021, 80. Of these, the employees assigned to the gaming rooms did not attend the casino. Two maintenance workers from the worker's scale (chief and assistant) performed 500 overtime hours, which implies 1.3 hours per day per employee for seven months. These employees, unlike the administrative and technical room operators, are authorized to work overtime," explained the IM.
Thus, the workers carried out "room conditioning and maintenance of the premises" which included the removal of some machines to create a meter and a half distance between them to respect the distance recommended by national authorities; "this also involved new wiring work for the slots due to this shift," indicated in the statement.
Also, during the health emergency, the fumigation "of all the casino spaces" against Covid-19 was carried out "periodically". In addition, they reported that during the closure period, "maintenance, cleaning, 222 [police] and surveillance services were maintained at the casino, so a casino guard was needed to control the proper execution of the tasks by these contracted services, as well as the operation and delivery of materials for the maintenance of bathrooms, changing rooms, and breaks for the employees who attended the casino. This control was carried out by the maintenance employees," the departmental executive insisted.
In that sense, they explained that the closure of the casino was taken advantage of to carry out tasks by these two maintenance employees, which would be more complicated to perform with the public present.
Other tasks carried out during that time were: survey and request for recharge and hydrostatic testing of fire extinguishers, cleaning of ducts and rigging in the gaming room; interior painting of the casino; due to vandalism of exterior windows, they were covered with wood as a preventive measure; supervision of maintenance work in the old building area of the Parque Hotel, where acts of vandalism and entry of homeless people occurred.
The deputy Martín Lema, a possible white candidate for the Intendencia of Montevideo facing the elections, again requested the immediate closure of the casino. "We will demand once more that the Municipal Casino be closed, it cannot be open for another minute," Lema demanded at a press conference.
The deputy also criticized the mayor of Montevideo, Mauricio Zunino, for meeting in Buenos Aires with the former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Zunino said: "[the mayor] has to step on Uruguay and at that moment order the closure of the Municipal Casino" and assured that the casino is a "hole resulting from poor management."
However, this is not the first time that the municipal casino faces criticism from the opposition. In August, the last balance of the Montevideo Municipality (IMM) was known, which shows that the Casino Parque Hotel, managed by the Municipality, had red numbers in 2023, which is why the controversy over the management of the casino erupted.
At that time, Lema presented a written exposition before the chamber of representatives with the aim of asking the IMM to "end the management of the Municipal Casino and redistribute its resources in other truly priority areas."
Lema's position aroused the rejection of the Association of Professional Casino Employees (ADEP) and the Association of Administrative Employees of Municipal Casinos (Afacm).
From ADEP a clear and serious improvement plan for municipal casinos was demanded, which includes the entry of personnel, the operation of gaming tables, the extension of the cafeteria's operating hours, improvements in parking, and a series of marketing actions to promote the room.
In this regard, Mayor Zunino highlighted that the Departmental Casino System as a whole is profitable, especially considering the leased spaces and operations managed directly by the Municipality: "All the data is in the accountability report, which was recently approved by the Board. When the system is analyzed as a whole, it is profitable and is supported by a validated balance."
