![]() ![]() The recent debate over the ordinance at a county commission meeting focused a spotlight where it seldom shines, on people who work or seek enjoyment on the dark fringes of societal mores. Dancers say it will regulate them out of jobs that can pay $30,000 or more a year. County officials say the rule will prevent prostitution. The money - Johnson’s primary income for everything from rent to soccer uniforms - buys a couch dance, also called a lap dance because that’s where the gyrations are performed.Ī new county ordinance would keep dancers out of men’s laps and mandate at least 4 feet between entertainer and customer. When the music stops pounding, she squeezes into a too-small outfit, steps out of the strobe light and into the audience, hoping her dance was erotic enough to entice men to pay $12 for a closer look. Johnson, 30, is an exotic dancer at Deja Vu Gentlemen’s Club in the Spokane Valley.Īt least three times during an eight-hour shift, she strips to her platform shoes, earning perhaps a few dollars in tips for that work. There’s a bunch of men who want to touch her.” “I actually hate her job,” said the well-mannered 11-year-old. He lies, he said, because he doesn’t want people to judge his mother, Angela Johnson. He tells people he doesn’t know or that she doesn’t have a job. But he lies when asked how his mother makes a living. ![]() “That’s not exactly true,” was all Shafer would say.Ĭadena’s attorneys said they are in contact with Deja Vu to try to persuade the club to reinstate her.The Boy Scout took an oath to tell the truth. Shafer denied that’s what happened, but he wouldn’t share Deja Vu’s version of the event. She said when she arrived at Deja Vu of North Hollywood, management presented her with a contract to acknowledge her status as a freelancer. As of last Wednesday, a day after she filed the lawsuit, she’s out of work. For the longest time, I haven’t felt I’ve been getting the respect I deserve.”Ĭadena’s activities come with a price. She’s now on a crusade to institute better working conditions at strip joints, Cadena said. Dancers elsewhere who are union-covered employees say they make $15 to $28 an hour. “Nowadays, even with a bachelor’s degree, it’s hard to make the kind of money we make,” Cadena said. Her dancing career is temporary, she said, but stripping generates more income than she’d earn in a low-skilled job. Plaintiff Cadena, 29, a San Fernando Valley resident, said she’s been stripping at Deja Vu of North Hollywood, and other clubs, for five years to put herself through college. “These women are being cheated out of their rights,” Mandlekar said. The dancers are also asking for unspecified punitive damages. ![]() In addition to being reclassified as employees, the exotic dancers are asking that they be reimbursed for the amounts they believe they should have been paid in the past three to four years, plus interest. “These lawsuits are usually a scam for ex-dancers to get free money,” Shafer said. Shafer said other dancers have made similar claims throughout the years, but they have been without merit. The contract features a clear disclaimer stating that they’re not employees, according to Shafer. “All these entertainers sign a very elaborate lease that specifically spells out the tenancy arrangement,” Shafer said. But he said the company will vigorously resist it. “‘What this case is about is an employer trying to call a cow a pig and it’s really a cow, no matter how many times you call it a pig,” Mandlekar said.ĭeja Vu’s attorney, Shafer, said he had not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges a violation of a section of the California Labor Code that gives employees the right to sue for back wages and overtime, and a section of the California Business and Professional Code that allows employees to sue for illegal, unfair or fraudulent business practices. Unlike true independent contractors, who have the freedom to set their own work schedule, the dancers are told when and where to work by club management, according to Ron Dean, another Cadena lawyer. The crux of the dancers’ lawsuit is that, although the clubs classify the dancers as freelancers, they are, in essence, employees, chiefly because of the amount of control management exerts over them. “I don’t know how an exotic dancer who takes her clothes off would consider a dressing room a private room,” Shafer said. ![]() “Did you ever see a dressing room for runway models, for example? There are people in the back rooms. The attitude seems to be, ‘They take off their clothes, to hell with them.’ ”īrad Shafer, Deja Vu’s Michigan-based attorney, defended the clubs. Said Cadena’s attorney, Ray Mandlekar: “The women don’t seem to get respect for their privacy. ![]()
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