While six former ex-Gloriavale women are engaged in a lengthy litigation case in the Employment Court arguing that they were employees and not volunteers a group of dancers are picketing outside Wellington’s Calendar Girls strip club and are looking to lobby Parliament over their rights as independent contractors.
It is reported that nineteen dancers working at Wellington's Calendar Girls were told not to come back to work by a Facebook post after requesting better work contracts.
On 30 January, 35 dancers from the Club decided to bargain collectively. The dancers have asked Calendar Girls management for two things; clear income records and a 60 percent cut of their earnings. It is understood that currently Calendar Girls dancers may pay up to 56 percent of their earnings back to their employer.
The dancers sent an email asking for changes. They say that the next day over half of them were told by the proprietor in a Facebook group post to "clear out their lockers".
Immediately after the proprietor's post asking the dancers to clear their lockers, his account made another Facebook post seeking accommodation for what appeared to be their replacements. In a statement, Calendar Girls management said 12 of the 19 dancers asked to clear their locker had already moved away or stopped working for the club.
The 19 dancers have formed a group called the Fired Up Stilettos and are seeking improved industry standards and better independent contractor protection. They say that, nationwide, dancer contracts are predatory by nature and are riddled with fines, retainer bonds and clauses forbidding work at competing venues and media engagement.
The dancers say that although they are treated as employees, as independent contractors they lack the employment protections of the Employment Relations Act. It is alleged that some clubs have really bad management and a culture of bullying.
Aotearoa NZ Sex Workers' Collective founder and national coordinator Dame Catherine Healy said there were many coercive practices across the industry. If they were properly scrutinised, many would not hold up under law.
Unfortunately, the cost of enforcing rights, whether as an employee, volunteer or contractor can be prohibitively expensive. The protracted Gloriavale case has seen Gloriavale apply to the Employment Court to represent itself because it cannot afford to continue to pay its lawyers to represent it.
Even when the Gloriavale case ends and there is a decision as to whether the claimants were employees or volunteers that decision may be challenged. In employment law circles, the Lord of the Rings film case of Bryson v Three Foot Six Ltd is notorious. Mr Bryson was a model maker and challenged his status as to whether he was an employee or an independent contractor. In the Employment Relations Authority he was found to be a contractor, in the Employment Court that decision was overturned and he was determined to be an employee. Then on appeal to the Court of Appeal and ultimately the Supreme Court Mr Bryson was found to be a contractor and then an employee respectively.
There is recent precedent for the dancers call to be allowed to bargain collectively. The Screen Industry Workers Act was passed into law last year. It allows workers to bargain collectively; either at the occupational level to cover all work by a particular occupation of screen workers across all screen productions, or at the enterprise level so it covers a single production or company.
An agreed collective contract needs to meet some minimum requirements including rates of pay, entitlements to breaks, and minimum procedural requirements for raising and responding to a complaint relating to bullying, discrimination, or harassment in the workplace.
In announcing the Screen Industry Workers Act the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety said “All people in New Zealand deserve good jobs, decent work conditions and fair compensation for their work… our Government is delivering better outcomes for workers and continuing to build New Zealand’s reputation as a great place to work”.
It is arguable that the dancers, largely vulnerable young women, are in far greater need than those working on large film productions. Of course there is a huge difference between the film industry that brings in billions of dollars into the economy and the picketing dancers. It is unlikely that the picketing dancers will get any traction with the Government at present. However, the principles expounded by the Minister should be supported by all New Zealanders. Read more