Dancer takes aim at strip club
A former exotic dancer plans to take action against Christchurch strip club Calendar Girls in a case that has exposed the inner workings of the business.
Jessica Clifford, 22, alleges she was unfairly sacked – which she learned from a Facebook message – and that she was underpaid for dances and her share of tips. Calendar Girls has ‘‘strongly’’ denied her allegations.
Clifford said she was motivated to take the case to expose what she described as exploitative practices at the club and to advocate for other dancers.
Documents seen by The Press show dancers must follow a strict set of rules controlling everything from when they remove clothing during a dance to how they interact with patrons and management.
Breaches are penalised with fines, ranging from $50 for missing a spot on stage to
$2500 for dancing for a competitor or meeting a client outside of work. Dancers who report on other women for the latter two breaches are paid
$500.
‘‘It scared a lot of the girls, because that was their only
income,’’ Clifford said of the fines system. ‘‘To have that threatened for every movement you made, for us it was like ‘OK, we’ll do everything right and make sure we don’t step on your toes’.
‘‘For me, stripping was all I had. That’s how it is for a lot of the girls there. I’m not doing this just on my behalf; I’m fighting for the girls there, too.’’
Clifford is seeking compensation from Calendar Girls for alleged unjustified dismissal, hurt and humiliation and lost wages after she was fired, purportedly for missing work, last September. She claims she
had a medical certificate and informed the club she would not come in.
Her employment advocate has filed a statement of problem with the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to determine the first issue: whether Clifford was, as she says, an employee, or a contractor, as Calendar Girls maintains.
Calendar Girls management declined to comment while the case was before the ERA. The club’s lawyer said in a letter a number of Clifford’s allegations were ‘‘strongly denied and wildly out of context’’.
Clifford started working at the Victoria St club about March last year after messaging the club ‘‘boss’’ on Facebook.
She claims she was not asked to sign any employment or contractor agreement after she started work and alleged she was unaware of any other dancers being asked to do so. ‘‘There was no paperwork involved.’’
She said she was simply invited in, shown around and had the pole dancing routine explained: a dancer removes her top on the first pole during one song and the ‘‘bottoms’’ come off on a second pole during the second song, she said.
Clifford was asked to choose her stripper name. She chose Misty.
About two months into the job, Clifford said she attended a meeting where a document outlining a set of rules and fines was handed out. However, she was adamant it was not a contract as it did not require a signature.
‘‘It was just ‘here are the rules, stick to them, otherwise you’ll be fired’,’’ she said.
The Press has viewed a copy of a document Clifford said was the handout titled ‘‘points for the meeting’’. It included $50 fines for missed stage spots and being late. Dancers with an ‘‘attitude’’ would be sent home ‘‘no questions asked’’ and ‘‘if you getting s… about it I will fine you aswell (sic)’’.
Bullying, the document said, needed to stop. If a now former manager saw instances of bullying they would ‘‘either outrageously fine some stupid amount or stand u down for two weeks at the least (sic)’’.
It covered hours of work. Fridays and Saturdays were compulsory unless dancers did a fiveday week. Clifford said dancers routinely worked 11-hour shifts, alternating between the stage, mingling with customers and doing lap dances in the private rooms upstairs, which were referred to as ‘‘penthouses’’.
The document reminded dancers not to use champagne as a selling tool and said that management would check the rooms more frequently for ‘‘intox (sic)’’ and to make sure ‘‘everything’s okay’’.
Clifford claimed the fines were a form of control and deducted without prior discussion.
Dancers were told they had been fined only if they noticed a shortfall in their pay and asked why, she said.
Another document containing a more exhaustive list of fines was this year supplied to Clifford’s employment advocate by the club in response to a request for a contract.
It set out a $100 fine for lateness, $75 fine for intoxication, $250 fine for not showing up for work, a $200 fine and a 50 per cent tax on tips for ‘‘rudeness to patrons or management’’, a $100 fine for wearing a G-string – ‘‘All dancers must be completely naked for whole of second song and entire duration of tip round’’ – and a $50 fine for ‘‘hanging around in changing rooms for [an] unacceptable amount of time’’, among others.
New Zealand employment law allows employers to make deductions from an employee’s pay for reasonable, lawful purposes, but only if an employee has agreed to the deduction in writing. This can be under a general deduction clause, but for each instance an employer must seek consent. This does not apply to contractors.
Clifford said she had not seen the document, titled ‘‘Calendar Girls dancer profit share arrangement policies and procedure’’, before and said some, but not all, of the fines were in place when she worked at the club.
The document stated it was not an employment agreement and that dancers were independent contractors required to pay their own tax. It also threatened legal action should dancers divulge the workings of the club to the public or media.
Clifford said when she started at Calendar Girls she trusted management completely.
She enjoyed stripping and said sometimes she could make good money, citing one instance when she earned $1500 in a night. However, on other nights dancers could earn nothing, she claimed. ‘‘It was a rollercoaster.’’ Clifford said dancers did not receive an hourly rate, rather they received tips from customers using cash or Calendar Girls notes, which were exchanged at the bar at the end of each shift, with the club taking a cut.
Dancers’ main form of income was from private dances. Tax invoices provided by Clifford showed customers paid $100 for a 15-minute lap dance (classed as ‘‘touching standard booth’’), $375 for a 30-minute penthouse strip and $650 for an hour-long penthouse strip.
Clifford alleged she was often underpaid. Her statement of problem stated she was paid by receiving points that Calendar Girls refunded for cash. It said the number of points was determined by Calendar Girls and did not reflect a dollar for point exchange, with no accounting for the deductions from the fee charged to the client. ‘‘None of us girls are stupid there, but we trusted them,’’ Clifford said.
She also alleged she and another dancer, her friend and flatmate, were subject to bullying.
Dancers are rotated on the main stage throughout the night. Clifford said she and the other dancer were told to do more than their fair share. ‘‘They would just run us dry,’’ she said.
Clifford claimed she found out she was fired from the company over Facebook after messaging to ask why she had not been paid. She said, as someone who previously suffered from depression and anxiety, the situation affected her badly.
She is now studying to be a teacher. An advocate for strippers’ rights, she said she wanted to ensure other dancers were protected.