Strippers: Employees or Contractors?
shailynn
They never tell you what you need to know.
Big game changer in California:
Court Backs 'ABC' Test: 'This Could Ruin the Gig Economy'
http://newser.com/s258643
Court Backs 'ABC' Test: 'This Could Ruin the Gig Economy'
http://newser.com/s258643
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37 comments
"Under this test, a worker is properly considered an independent contractor to whom a wage order does not apply only if
the hiring entity establishes:
(A) That the worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under
the contract for the performance of such work and in fact;
(B) That the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
(C) That the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity.
C works in the club's favor. A and B do not.
B and C are fine if the club treats itself like a bar that sells beverages and alcohol.
Agreed that A works in club's regarding floor dances and private dances and what the dancer does or doesn't do in those dances. But I think A works against club in regard to dancer scheduling and fining dancers for not showing up and also in regard to main stage dances where dancer has to get on stage when called.
As for B, you have a point with B working in club's favor with the club pitching itself as a bar that sells alcohol or not and just so happens to have a stable of independent contractor dancers that strip their clothes off, but vulnerability there is that clubs call themselves strip clubs not bars.
As for C, stripping has been conducted for decades an established independent occupation and that works in club's favor but under this court ruling the historical distinction breaks down if the dancer works at only one club and doesn't do bachelor parties on the side or work for multiple clubs.
SJG
Let’s assume that you are a tradesman with many employees, you get a job that you don’t have the manpower to complete at the moment, so you hire another company that has more employees than scheduled work. Your arrangement with them is for a flat fee your sub will provide X employees to the jobsite during specific hours for a flat fee. Your sub assumes the costs associated with those employees and you get the benefit of the work product, you pay your sub the agreed amount and he provides you with a certain amount of finished product, taking his profit from the difference between what you pay for product and his cost to produce that product. It is complicated but just because you must adhere to certain rules doesn’t negate the fact that my sub cannot be classified as an employee.
For sure strippers have historically been independent contractors and you make good point about working conditions and payment of house fees that will be in club's favor. The tip thing won't work in club's favor - by analogy, waitresses get tips for service provided at restaurants and they're definitely employees not contractors, at least in Calif.
What's going to happen in California resulting from this court decision is that labor lawyers are going to gather strippers (especially strippers no longer working at particular club) and file class actions seeking all sorts of damages: overtime wages, wages for unpaid rest breaks and meal breaks, and Labor Code penalties for nonpayment of wages and not providing itemized wage stubs. The hammer in California is that if the stripper wins and is retroactively classified as employee, then club will get nailed for not just the wages but the class action attorneys fees. Wage litigation in California is the new asbestos - this is going to be a big deal.
SJG
Most of the dancers decided it was not in their best interest to be considered employees ( I don't recall the reasons) and legal action was brought as I recall because a dancer fell on stage and the club would not cover her medical expenses.
You are correct the construction industry is mostly exempt from this court ruling, and that's primarily because exempt construction subcontractors have licenses allowing them to engage in construction trades, but if one of those licensed subs tries to treat its own non-licensed workers as contractors instead of employees then that sub is going to get nailed for misclassifying those non-licensed people as contractors instead of employees.
Now, if the stripper has a work permit issued by a city or county that requires dancers to have permits, that's going to help the club in the analysis but a permit like that is just a local thing and not a state issued license that will immunize the club from the contractor versus employee distinction.
Labor laws could easily used to do the exact same thing in real world settings.
That would be quite a group of cats to herd.
Sometimes their guild has parties with the bicycle messengers guild.
SJG
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In order for this to become prevalent in the strip club industry - won’t it require a few strippers to bring lawsuits? That will require organization and coordination.
This is not going to happen.
But in SF strippers do have a guild.
It was also a workers guild which had owned the now defunct Lusty Lady, old style behind glass shows.
SJG
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But on the other hand, the idea is to be getting retroactive fairness for these who have been miscategorized as contractors.
I am confident that contractor status will continue, it just has to be done more carefully.
Historically in San Francisco, they sustained contractor status by having a talent agency, and rotating dancers between clubs.
SJG
"(A) That the worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under
the contract for the performance of such work and in fact; "
And this favors front room makeout session, plus anything else one might want.
:) :) :)
SJG
Does that peek your curiosity, women who are completely free agents?
SJG
Well, I can't resist making a snarky comment about how that would require organization, forethought, etc.
Of course, I also think that this is a case where the girls may well know more than we give them credit for. I've seen the girls have intelligent conversations about how unionizing might well make things worse for them, particularly the high earners. I reckon they're right.
We did have a unionized strip club in SF; although not just union, but the girls themselves bought out and ran the club itself. It was a disaster, and the club seemed to focus on everything but trying to understand what strip club customers want. They were dismal even in comparison to the unspeakably crappy deja vu clubs around them, and that's saying something
In short:
- It was practically an apocalypse for the girls. Their revenue plummeted, they have a ton of work rules no one else in the city had to deal with... but hey, they had healthcare (which I assume cost them a fortune)
- It was a disaster for customers. The club that IMO was the best strip club ever to exist in the US, became too expensive to be a reasonable choice for most of us, the subsequent drop in stripper revenue resulted in quality plummeting, and in the end, Deja Vu's corporatized McDonalds-of-strip-clubs horrific customer experience was actually the best choice. Sigh.
- It was a disaster for the owners, who had to sell a storied strip club to the evil empire
But really good things could happen, suppose in the SF clubs, all the girls are turned into freelancers, basically customers. So the men and the women pay an entrance charge, and the men will be paying for booths and back rooms. But the house does not get other money from the women. So it would become more and more like TJ.
The women would just do it whatever way they want, and that is always the best!
SJG
But consider, a strip club where the women are all freelancers and operate under very few rules other than their own!!
SJG
http://www.bayswan.org/eda-sf/
Not actually a union, an alliance
SJG
The more you do it that way, the more like TJ it becomes. Less light in areas of the front room too.
It will be GFE auditions -> FS -> and sometimes you can just walk a girl right out the front door
SJG
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