Las Vegas Sands will pay restaurant workers at Venetian, Palazzo

In addition to paying 10,000 Venetian and Palazzo employees during the state-ordered closure, Las Vegas Sands Corp. said Friday it will pay the 1,200 employees working in the resorts’ 14 third-party restaurants.

Hourly and part-time workers will receive a weekly stipend.

Earlier this week, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced non-essential businesses, including all Strip resorts, must remain closed through April 30 to help stop the spread of the coronavirus and to prevent an overload of Nevada’s health care system. Restaurants are considered “essential” as long as they can provide curbside takeout or delivery. The restaurants inside Venetian and Palazzo are closed because they are only accessible to the public from inside the casino.

“We partner with several renowned restaurant companies to bring our world-class dining experience to The Venetian,” said Rob Goldstein, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands. “As part of these partnerships, the restaurants are managed independently from The Venetian and employ their own staff. However, these employees are an important part of our family and experience. During these unprecedented times, we are committed to doing what we can to help our culinary community, which is being hit particularly hard during this crisis.”

Sands, which has pledged to pay all salaried, hourly, tipped, seasonal and on-call employees during the closure amid massive furloughs and layoffs by other resort operators, also has donated 2 million surgical masks and 20,000 protective suits to help health care professionals, first responders and nonprofit organizations.

The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands operates The Venetian, Palazzo and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.