Exotic Dancers Can Collect Unemployment, Kansas Supreme Court Says

[The Straight Story]

Exotic Dancers Can Collect Unemployment, Kansas Supreme Court Says

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled that exotic dancers at a strip club have the right to collect unemployment insurance as employees and not independent contractors.

In 2005, a dancer at Club Orleans in Topeka filed an unemployment claim. The dancers earn money through tips, while the club maintains that it is offering “rental space” for them to perform.

By ruling that the workers are employees because they had to follow a number of house rules, the state Supreme Court decided that the club’s owners must contribute to the state unemployment-insurance fund, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The Kansas Department of Labor argued that the minimum rates for particular dances and rules binding interactions with customers could be interpreted as rules for employees.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/02/exotic-dancers-can-collect-unemployment-kansas-supreme-court-says/

[bluestateguy]

1. Well! This is an outrage!

Now we're all going to pay for it in higher cover charges and costlier table dances!

[Lionessa]

2. Excellent. They should be paying full and proper paychecks for those gals.

I hope more 'contractors' get together in other industries as well and realize that the new rules about sub- and contract work should actually be forcing their 'employers' to actually hire them and treat them as employees with all the benefits and taxes and unemployment. I've met so many along the past 5 years of my trying to find job or get my biz relocated. People who are working exclusively for one company, full time, on a pre-determined schedule with rules and regs about dress and quotas and all, that realize they're being entirely screwed, but don't realize they have a legal right to do something about it.

In Boise I used to follow around some ice cream truck drivers. I went to be considered first, then I found out they had specific hours one had to work and it would be checked by a supervisor, they had quotas to meet weekly or take a loss of commission %, no base pay, required uniforms, etc, and they wanted it to be as an off-site commission salesman... yeah, right, not acceptable. So I started following their drivers around and giving them copies of the pertinent aspects of the issue, not telling them what to do, just giving them information. The owners had a lawyer come after me, but by the time the letters began arriving I'd already left for places elsewhere so I had already stopped.

[dballance]

3. If the Customers Were Smart (okay, I know that's a dubious assumption) They'd Want Healthcare for...

the dancers too. So that the dancers were healthy and could get any issues taken care of quickly. Because you know some, but not all, of those dancers engage in extra-curricular activities and it would be in the best interest of everyone to ensure they are healthy and not carrying and transmitting STDs.

[LiberalFighter]

7. When I was much younger I went to a couple those places.

They require a certain number of drinks. Expensive drinks. The women in the places were less than appealing. They looked like they were on drugs. Never stepped in one of those places again.

[Recursion]

4. Hiding employees as 1099's is a longstanding abuse

Not just in strip clubs; all over the economy. Glad to see it whenever it gets cracked down on.

[librabear]

5. In this case I'm pretty sure they actually are independent contractors

They do actually rent the stage. Management collects the entry fee, and the dancers keep the tips.

[Recursion]

6. If you tell somebody how and when to do their job, they aren't a 1099

DoL is very specific about this.

[librabear]

10. Rental contracts do all of this

Ever read the lease on your house? Business rental agreements can dictate anything that you can think of, including how a tenant runs their business.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Do they also rent the laps of the men at the tables when not performing?

Or is that included with the stage rent?

[Starry Messenger]

9. No, the law is right on this.

If you have workplace rules, or a conduct handbook that your workers have to follow and their working for your establishment is contingent on following those rules, you are an employee.

My partner was involved in a nearly identical case involving cab drivers in Oakland. They were ruled to be employees on the same basis, even though they rent the cabs from the owner. The owner brought out an employee rule-book, the cabbies even had to attend a class on it, unpaid. The owners lost their suit.