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.
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