Dancers take case to Parliament about working conditions at strip clubs

Wednesday, 8 March 2023

A group of strip club dancers – Fired Up Stilettos is lobbying Parliament over their rights as independent contractors after 19 dancers were fired for asking their managemenet for better pay and income records.

Strip club dancers will meet MPs on Thursday to lobby them about the labour conditions at adult entertainment venues that they are calling exploitative and abusive.

An imbalance of power held by strip clubs had gone unchallenged for too long, said Laura, a dancer from the group Fired Up Stilettos who was fired from Calendar Girls when she queried her employment conditions.

“There’s no one holding them accountable. There’s no system holding them accountable. It’s ridiculous,” she said.

The 20 or so dancers who will meet MPs are among 35 who decided to bargain collectively over the amount they are paid as independent contractors.

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A number of dancers will be speaking about their personal experiences in the industry which Laura described as ‘harrowing’.

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Green Party MP Jan Logie will be hosting the Parliament meeting alongside the dancers.

They wanted the venue to continue to take 50% of what clients paid dancers but Calendar Girls increased its take to 60% in the 2023 contract. Now the dancers are asking for a nationwide, mandatory maximum percentage to be set.

Laura said there was a lot riding on the success of the campaign because she believed venues capitalised on the moral judgement that came with their work in the adult entertainment industry.

“They’re aware of the previous stigma, they’re aware of the barriers that we face in being able to stand up for ourselves and that’s what they use.”

Laura says a lot is riding on the action taken by the group/

There was resistance within the industry to taking collective action as many dancers had previously been fired for trying to negotiate their contracts and many said their working conditions worsened if they tried to bargain, Laura said.

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“It’s a vicious cycle of silencing people who have just got to the point in the industry where they feel empowered to stand up for themselves.”

Last month 19 Calendar Girls dancers, including Laura, were fired – being told to “clear out their lockers” via a Facebook post – after asking the Wellington strip club’s management for better pay and clear income records.

Calendar Girls said in an earlier statement that while the percentage cut for service had dropped, the dollar amounts of payments to strippers had increased. With “hindsight”, the club should have been increasing the cost of services more frequently.

When the fired dancers decided to campaign for legislative change, they understood it would put an end to their career as dancers in Aotearoa, Laura said.

But for others in the industry and for any future dancers change would be “the best thing in the world”, she said.

“If we can leave a positive impact on this industry as a result of our termination, then what more powerful thing could we leave behind.”

The meeting from 7-9pm would be livestreamed via the Fired Up Stilettos’ page.

Green Party MP Jan Logie, along with dances from Fired Up Stilettos, would be hosting the meeting. MPs including Chlöe Swarbrick, Equity New Zealand members and representatives of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions and New Zealand Prostitutes Collective were also expected to attend.