Tipping form puts dancers in quandary

Dancers from a second strip club in Wellington are speaking out about alleged coercive behaviour at their workplace, having feared they would be fired like 19 dancers were at Calendar Girls this year.

The breaking point came for one dancer last Friday, after the owner of Mermaid Strip Club allegedly entered the dancers’ changing room after an altercation between a dancer and customer, with a form about tipping and asked all dancers to sign it.

According to a document seen by The Post, CJ Davis was the sole owner of the club after he bought it from brothers Michael and John Chow.

The dancer, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the atmosphere on Friday evening was distressing, with dancers crying and requesting Davis to leave and to set up meeting.

The form said: ‘‘Just a reminder that it is encouraged for all people entering the venue to tip. It is not compulsory, regardless of where they are seated.’’

As independent contractors, dancers earned money through tips and private dances. But a percentage of their earnings from private dancers went to the venue – in the case of The Mermaid, it was more than 50%, while dancers could keep 100% of their tips.

‘‘The document goes against how strip clubs are set up,’’ the dancer said. She did not want to be named out of fear of being fired.

Because the dancers were not paid an hourly wage, the tips acted almost as an hourly rate because they were required to dance on stage roughly every hour or hourand-a-half.

It was standard international practice to tip if you were sitting in the ‘‘prime tipping seats’’ which were closest to the stage. But dancers were concerned the form meant this could not be enforced.

‘‘If you’re at the stage, you tip, this goes against that, you’re upsetting the whole balance.’’

She said the owner was ‘‘pushing dancers up to the edge’’ and she was concerned they’d have to tolerate worse behaviour by customers.

‘‘They’re all really scared because of the cuts . . . he’s artificially depressed everyone’s wages to the point where they can’t afford to take action or take time off.

‘‘[He’s] inflicting this severe economic and psychological distress . . . [He’s] created hell.’’

Laura, a founding member of the Fired Up Stilettos and one of 19

dancers fired by Wellington’s Calendar Girls after attempting to negotiate with the owner for better pay, said she had previously tried to negotiate with Davis after hearing about working conditions from previous Mermaid dancers.

It had requested to meet with the owner to negotiate on behalf of the dancers to ask for a higher percentage cut to the dancers and to ban fines, but it was declined.

Laura said the form about tipping crossed a line of what clubs could and could not compel dancers to do.

‘‘It’s robbing dancers from the ability to earn an income for

their labour.’’

Tipping was not ‘‘a cultural thing’’ – it was standard practice, she said.

The owner of the venue, CJ Davis, said he had ‘‘no comment’’ when contacted by The Post and did not respond to questions.

About 100 people gathered on Parliament grounds yesterday afternoon, hoping to catch the attention of MPs to push legislative change. It was Fired Up Stilettos’ fourth protest since forming the collective and no significant changes appeared to have been made by clubs.

A petition running on Parlia

ment’s website had gathered more than 5600 signatures. It called for the right to bargain collectively while maintaining an independent contractor status, outlawing all fines and bonds between employers and contractors, and establishing a nationwide mandatory maximum of 20% that an employer can take from a contractor’s profits.

Most dancers did not want to be employees and wanted to maintain their autonomy and independence as contractors, Laura said. It was part of the appeal for many dancers to join the industry to begin with.