Exotic dancers in Louisiana recently filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana alleging that strip club policies treating them as independent contractors violates federal labor laws.
Tina Gutierrez, an attorney at Hodges & Foty LLP of Houston, told the Louisiana Record that such suits are not uncommon, and her firm has handled many such cases across the country.
It is by no means a new trend, Gutierrez said, citing a list of cases dating to the 1990s in which federal judges have ruled that exotic dancers should be treated as employees rather than as independent contractors. The list she provided showed cases dating back as far as 1992.
Yet, with the most recent ruling coming in 2019 involving The Follies restaurant and bar in Chamblee, Georgia; it is apparent that the established case law has done little to curb the practice.
“Attached for your convenience is a sample list of cases where dancers were found to be employees — not independent contractors like clubs classify them — from over the years,” Gutierrez told the Record. “You will see that especially since the ‘90s, the area of law is well developed with courts reaching this conclusion.”
So far in the Louisiana case, the defendants had not responded, Gutierrez said.
Unlike many other cases in the list, however, this case involved not only six dancers and their separate respective clubs, but also the parent companies behind those clubs, a report issued on Nola.com said.
David Hodges; a Houston-based lawyer representing Kelly Clifton, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit; echoed Gutierrez in how well-established the precedent is for such cases, the Nola.com report said. He noted that some clubs have voluntarily begun to treat dancers as employees, but most have gone with creating mandatory arbitration agreements in an attempt to keep any disagreements over employment from ever reaching court.
"This is their business model," Hodges said. "They could very easily fix it and pay dancers just like they do their other tipped employees, like their bartenders. But instead they can get 75 bucks at the front end and force them to spread out the tips. It's too lucrative."