Club dancer-sheduling and IC status ?

Papi_Chulo
Miami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)
As many of us know, in most areas dancers are independent-contractors (ICs) and as such it’s my understanding clubs can’t make dancers work a certain-schedule? And as some of us know, over the last few-years a good # of clubs have gotten sued over treating dancers as employees while they are working as ICs.

I often wondered how that works these days w.r.t. dancer-scheduling by clubs and if the clubs are or aren’t allowed to set schedules for dancers or demand dancers work certain days. Seems some clubs don’t set any scheduling for dancers I assume mostly out of fear of getting sued over the IC issue; but seems some clubs do still set schedules or at least demand dancers work certain days (do they make a dancer agree to being scheduled by having them sign some kinda paperwork upfront?)

Out of curiosity; does anyone know how dancer-scheduling is being done in their local-clubs and if the dancers are free to come-and-go as they please or if they have to work certain times mandated by the club?

Would be interesting to get some responses from dancers as to their experience.

16 comments

  • gobstopper007
    3 years ago
    I am not sure but it seems like the girls I have talked to say they are asked their availability first and then told when they are expected to work. If they make a habit of not showing up they just don’t get scheduled again. They aren’t scheduled days they say they can’t work.

    Even an IC has to work within a schedule to an extent and can’t just show up as they choose.
  • Papi_Chulo
    3 years ago
    ^ I guess a more-precise question is whether the club can make them work certain days?
  • Icee Loco (asshole)
    3 years ago
    It really depends. If they're employees they receive a weekly schedule and must show up. Some clubs demand a minimum number of days. Some require dancers to work like 2 days hurts to work weekend nights. Girls can get fined for calling off or not showing up or coming late...leaving early. It varies
  • rickdugan
    3 years ago
    ^ Not if they have any sense in their heads. It's one thing for the bazaar to poll its vendors to find out which ones can set up booths up on certain days and even to limit who can do so on which days. It's quite another to tell the vendor that she HAS to be there on a certain day at a certain time. You might as well start saving up for the misclassification settlement now.
  • jackslash
    3 years ago
    The clubs in the Detroit suburbs require dancers to work a certain number of days in a week. The clubs assess fines when the dancers don't show up or show up late. If a dancer refuses to keep a minimum schedule, she will not be allowed to work at all. So the clubs have a lot of power and can keep the strippers in line.
  • nicespice
    3 years ago
    It varies.

    In a lot of places with scheduling managers just say “oh hey what days are you coming in next week” And then it varies how much said managers will hold you to do what you said you would do. Some will enforce it, others will be so lax it might not as well actually be a scheduling club in reality.

    Some take it a step further and ask you do a deemed slow day or pay like an extra $25

    Some may take it even further and not let you work a particular shift if you don’t do the shift they want.

    Some may take it a step further. You can request your shift but “seniority” matters for how available a particular shift is for you. (I’m looking at you, clubs in Oregon!)

    There are clubs in the upper Midwest that are based off booking. For the week or two you agree to work, you have to work long hours at the time they want. Whether you pay more or just not get invited back depends.

    On the other end, other places are more flexible. When I was in central Texas, I stuck with clubs that let me leave when I wanted, though*some* would require permission or charge extra to go. 😁 Lots of Arizona areas I’ve noticed allow leaving when you want but some also have 4 hour minimum requirements. Go to an awesome hookah lounge because Covid cases are high, and the people actually in the room are deadweights with surly attitudes? Hell yeah, that hookah lounge at midnight seems AWESOME. Fair amount of flexibility for when you leave on the east side of Florida. (Too bad most of the beaches on that side isn’t dog friendly though 😞)

    But most places you leave the time they want you to leave. Because either the shift length to stay is at least 6 or 8 hours. Or alternatively, if you show up dayshift you leave at some time between 7-9, and nightshift you leave at closing and that’s that.
    ——
    In short…it’s all over the map. I think it’s more common for places to regulate how long you work a shift than it is to regulate what actual shifts you work. Smaller areas, in general, I think enforce schedules more though

  • PinkSugarDoll
    3 years ago
    Nicespice is right—

    Most places I work you can come and go whenever.

    HOWEVER. If you do, there is a penalty, as in: if you make a schedule, or if you make it in on certain days or by certain times, you get a break on your house fees. Let’s say in a club, the base house fee is $150. These are some things that might happen:

    If you work when you want, you pay $150 a shift.

    If you work on a Sunday or Monday, it’s free, and the rest of the days you work are only $30.

    If you work 4 days, your 5th day is free, week starting on Friday and ending on Thursday.

    If you get here before 5 pm, your house is $15, before 7 pm your house is $30 and goes up $5 per hour until 11 pm when it is $150 for the rest of the night (Vegas is like this)

    If you sign a contract saying you will work these specific days, your house is only $60, If you don’t make those days you owe $150 for the missed days and any other day you work that week.

    If you stay 6 hours it’s $60, if you leave early it’s $150

    So there is incentive to come to work. Smart girls will work the same schedule so customers know when to catch them. 👍🏼 But most places, you can come and go when you want.
  • McNaffles
    3 years ago
    One smallish dive club I know reasonably well has a weekly sheet and the club's aim is to get a minimum number of girls in each shift. So that involves the regular and senior girls getting a pretty good choice as to their days; usually a minimum of four. The second tier and newer girls then get spread evenly across the board.
    The house fees and 'fines' help keep the girls somewhat in line (if they turn up). But there are almost constant adjustments to that day's schedule especially between 9pm and 10pm each evening!
    There's also sometimes another rush hour just after midnite when there are 10 girls but only 4 or 5 patrons. Some girls will be let off early, so long as full house fee given.
    To answer Papi's question, in this club there does seem some push and pull, give and take. I guess by and large it balances out.
  • NinaBambina
    3 years ago
    Depends on the club.

    I've worked at clubs where you come and go as you please, and I've worked at clubs that mandated a schedule. Usually you can more or less work whenever you want, but often you'll have to pay more if you are not on schedule. Most of the Detroit area clubs are like that: if you stick to a schedule, you're a "house girl" and pay a lower tipout than a girl who is "freelance" and works whenever she wants.

    At the Deja Vu clubs, the incentive to be on schedule is so high, they take half your money if you're "freelance." (They also take a good 1/3 if you're on schedule so they're just an expensive club to work at)

    There are a lot of clubs that are travel-dancer friendly and have girls come in for the weekend once a month or during an event or convention and don't require schedules at all. Then there are clubs that won't let you work unless you're on schedule.
  • blahblahblah23
    3 years ago
    I have nothing to add here really that hasn't been said other than my opinion. I can't stand working "strict" schedules at clubs for long unless the money is good enough to where I think it is worth it. So I would rather deal with a lax club that maybe let's some shit go that I dont care for so long as I dont have to bother with any scheduling whatsoever
  • BubbleYum
    3 years ago
    The clubs in Detroit asked that we schedule a minimum of three nights a week. If we choose to go out schedule, it's letting the club know that they have guaranteed girls for that evening. If we choose to not go on schedule, we are charged a freelance fee per every shift we work. The freelance fees vary from club to club.
    Some clubs will have certain stipulations around schedules. Legends, for example, says we have to have a Sunday night or a Monday night included in our schedule. In contrast, Players says we can include a Sunday, Monday, or a Tuesday. Flight Club doesn't care what nights out of the week you commit to so long as it's 3 nights. Landing Strip is the only club I have worked at in Metro Detroit that does not require a schedule at all to still get the lowest possible tip out rate. I can work there four nights a week or just one night a week and still get charged the same rate.
    It's technically not legal from what I'm told, but Alan Markowitz's lawyer found some kind of a loophole like 10 years ago and began charging girls freelance fees. All the clubs in Detroit followed suit.


  • shadowcat
    3 years ago
    It does appear that using different tip out fees is being used as a means a scheduling. That can't just work the prime time shifts without it costing them more.
  • Dolfan
    3 years ago
    The girls responding obviously know more than me, but one of the common provisions clubs here seem to have is a policy where if a dancer wants a desirable shift, she must also work an undesirable one. It's not always a 1:1 exchange, but it goes something like if you want to work a Th-Fr-Sa night, you must also work one of the Su-Mo-Tue-Wed nights. Or maybe if you work 2 weekend nights you have to work 1 shift outside of that. At least there are a fair number of girls who tell me that.

    When determining if a worker is a contractor or not, the concept of set work hours has always been flexible and it's one of many considerations. There's not a strict rule that says you can't dictate contractors hours. If all of the other considerations are in line, a lawsuit reclassify won't be one because the club dictated a time/day window. If the situation is already questionable though, and they're dictating hours it could certainly be the proverbial straw to break the camels back.

    Given the current dynamics, I don't have a lot of sympathy for people suing over that shit. If you don't like the employment terms, there's other jobs out there. It won't take long for employers to adjust their terms to attract or keep talent. Strippers or otherwise. There may be some highly specialized jobs where lawsuits are the best way to change the status quo, but stripping ain't one of them.
  • Papi_Chulo
    3 years ago
    A 35 y/o NYC-Asian-woman is followed to her apartment from the subway and is stabbed to death in her apartment by a career-criminal w/ a rap-sheet 2-miles-long - and you have airheads like AOC and other leftists constantly defending criminals vs defending and standing-up for the victims - and worse yet you have a whole bunch of idiots drinking the leftist and AOC Koolaid - the left has a ton of blood on their hands and their solution is to double-down while the bodies keep piling up - can't believe what many parts of America have turned into - these people are willing for innocent people to get slaughtered in the name of their "revolution"/ideology:

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-christina…
  • Papi_Chulo
    3 years ago
    ^ wrong thread
  • ilbbaicnl
    3 years ago
    The IRS's bark is worse than it's bite. It only goes after a fraction of cases where the safe harbor provisions for who is an independent contractor are not followed. Biden's trying to beef up the IRS. But it's a repeat of the VA governor's race shit-show, they are just calling anyone who complains a terrorist, guaranteeing they'll be voted out of power. They don't get it why people don't want them looking over pretty much all of their bank transactions.

    Clubs could list the stage names of which dancers are scheduled to work a shift on the internet. Many dancers would allow carefully taken pictures (hiding their faces and tats) on the internet. But most clubs are too lazy to do this stuff. They'd rather try to force dancers to sit around and waste their time in empty clubs.
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