Kan. Strippers Can Get Unemployment
By Susanna Kim | ABC News Blogs
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that exotic dancers at a strip club have the right to collect unemployment insurance as employees and not independent contractors.
In 2005, a dancer at Club Orleans in Topeka filed an unemployment claim. The dancers earn money through tips, while the club maintains that it is offering "rental space" for them to perform.
By ruling that the workers are employees because they had to follow a number of house rules, the state Supreme Court decided that the club's owners must contribute to the state unemployment-insurance fund, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The Kansas Department of Labor argued that the minimum rates for particular dances and rules binding interactions with customers could be interpreted as rules for employees.
The Department of Labor would not release the name of the worker who filed for unemployment.
Michael Merriam, an attorney for Milano's, a company that owned Club Orleans since 2002, told ABC News that the ruling "was incorrectly decided."
"The court relied almost entirely on the fact that we had some house rules which were requested by the dancers. They were designed to keep everything legal," Merriam said. "And the court relied on that fact alone to say we had control over them and that made them employees."
He said his client does not plan to appeal the decision.
"This is the Kansas Supreme Court. This is where it ends," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Labor said this ruling applies to the workers at issue in this case.
"All decisions concerning unemployment are based on the applicable law and the specific facts of each case," she said.
Comments
last commentIt's the end of the world as we know it.
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Dancers cant have their cake and eat it too. That owner will get even somehow
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How about bouncers who work in strip clubs in Kansas. Can they claim comp if they suffered PTSD after the RickyBoy greased them in one if the outhouses out there?
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Once all the clubs have been sued into treating dancers like employees the dancers will be pissed because they have to follow all the rules.
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Kansas dancers will regret that they are employees. They will make much less money.
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The trend is taking shape. South Carolina had a similar case and same result. Now, Kansas. State by state, dancers will be classified as employees. A new frontier in labor law.
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Those dancers will regret this
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This is kind of like when microsoft was sued for being a monopoly having their programs pre installed on most computers sold. Then bill gates just sold everyone the programs for more money making him richer at everyones expense. Now the clubs will make more at dancers expense. And they will have to report more of their income and pay taxes. They will wish they kept their mouths shut
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The patrons are the ones that will be screwed. The next step is clubs will have NLRB hiring rules and you will have to a quota of Rosie O'Donnels and transexuals. If you actually look at it from a regulatory point of view it is smart move by Kansas to regulate strip clubs out of business which is likely the do gooders ultimate goal.
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