Notice of Class Action

I saw a notice in the San Francisco Bay Guardian that a group of dancers from the Gold Club have filed a lawsuit against the club.

From the time that I first moved to San Francisco, in 1997, I have been hearing dancers from various strip clubs around the city talk about being required to work in the clubs as independent contractors, rather than as regular employees — even though other club staff are legally classified as regular employees. As independent contractors, the dancers often have to pay “stage fees” in order to perform. There go their tips!

According to the notice, three Gold Club dancers are alleging that they were treated as independent contractors, even though they were employees. They worked there over a four-year period, from 2000 to 2004.

San Francisco sex workers and erotic entertainers have a long and proud history of standing up for labor and health care rights, the most famous case being the making of the unionized, worker-owned North Beach club, the Lusty Lady Peep Show. I’ll be curious to see where this current suit goes.

For more information on strippers’ rights, including the rights to organize and to occupational health care, check out the former Exotic Dancers Alliance and the St. James Infirmary.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 9th, 2005 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Culture & Media, Pleasure, Politics, Sex Workers' Rights, Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.