Given their broad scope of responsibility, Parliament’s Education and Workforce Committee hears submissions from all sorts of individuals and groups.
Builders to bus drivers, teachers to travel agents, basically anyone with a job is by default, a stakeholder of much of the business that goes through the committee.
This week, one of those items of business was a submission hearing, regarding a petition from a group of workers that want better employment regulations for their industry.
Photo: VNP/Louis Collins
That group, is called Fired Up Stilettos. On Wednesday, their towering heels treaded not the stage, but the corridors of Parliament, where two of their board members argued their case and answered questions from committee members.
In case you weren’t up to scratch with the employment conditions of workers in the adult entertainment industry, in New Zealand, strip clubs hire their dancers as independent contractors.
Given the sexual nature of the work, dancers say it wouldn’t be ethically viable for them to be employees.
“Imagine a big part of your work being that you are commodifying your body and sexuality. Do you want to have a higher up person who's never worked in your industry, telling you how you can and cannot do that, that does not give you the autonomy that we in this industry are seeking,” submitter Vixen Temple explained to the committee.
While in theory, this gives dancers more autonomy, in practice, workers in the industry have been subject to unfair working conditions, where pay is often docked with little or subjective justifications given.
In this circumstance an employee might go to HR, or get in touch with their union. But current legislation dictates that independent contractors don’t really have the ability to collectively bargain.
At the same session, MBIE officials also presented to the committee, and deciphered some of the legislative and policy conditions that would need to be considered should the petition be actioned by Parliament.
You may remember a bill going through Parliament a few years ago that allowed a collective bargaining exemption for workers in Aotearoa’s film industry. The Screen Industry Workers Act 2022 gave New Zealand’s movie makers, most of whom are independent contractors, industry specific protections.
Adult entertainment industry workers are asking Parliament to consider a similar, industry specific exemption under the Commerce Act, after what they say have been inefficacious attempts at engaging with the relevant bureaucratic frameworks.
In their submission, Fired Up Stilettos suggested a change would be beneficial for all independent contractors, including freelance creatives, electricians, and other guns for hire.
“There are acknowledged limitations for contractors in our current framework, and that applies generically across contractors in general. So I wouldn't single out any particular industries more. The gaps aren't more for particular industries, it's a generic issue for people who operate a commercial framework,” said MBIE’s Simon Cook.
Following their submission RNZ’s The House caught up with submitters Vixen Temple, and Laura Phillips, the latter of which wrote the submission.They offered a breakdown of what their submission asks for, and how their experience engaging with Parliament has been. To listen to that interview, click the link at the top of this page.
“It’s whorephobia”
Fired Up Stilettos was established following the mass firing of 19 strip club dancers last year. After getting nowhere with Worksafe and the Commerce Commission, Phillips says the petition is “the last resort, because if changes don’t happen from the parliament level, and are written into law, then they’re not going to happen.”
Strippers and supporters at Parliament. Photo: Fired Up Stilettos / Supplied
When one sees a headline with something along the lines of “strippers call for fairer working conditions” it’s often assumed that their issues are related to the nature of the work.
Temple argues this is a misconception. “It’s whorephobia, and I want to make it very clear our industry isn’t inherently exploitative.” Fired Up Stilettos have been hosting their own strip club events that are run and managed by strip club workers themselves, in Temple’s opinion the success of these events is indicative that the status quo of strip club operation is to blame, not the industry itself.
“When people think of exploitation in adult entertainment, they often have a misconception about something that we do in our jobs, a problem with the customers, lapdancers, or being naked. That’s not how we think of exploitation,” says Phillips. “We think of exploitation as not being able to keep the money that we earn, and not being fairly compensated for the risk that we expose ourselves to.”
“I don’t feel exploited taking my clothes off for money, I feel exploited taking my clothes off and having that money taken off me,” laments Temple.
The petition
The petition the Education and Workforce Committee are considering asks for three things.
The first is the right to collective bargaining, while maintaining independent contractor status.
The second is to outlaw fines and bonds, which dancers say are common in the industry. “It's just theft,” says Phillips. “If the venue is having a slow week, they can just fine some of the dancers and increase their profit margin.” Dancers reported that fines as big as $500 can be given for a myriad of subjective reasons, such as being rude to customers, or not being naked for a desired length of time.
The third is to set a profit-sharing cap, so venues can only take 20% of the money dancers earn. Phillips insists this number is not unreasonable given this was common practice a decade ago and venues were profitable at that time.
Experience with Parliament
After being fired, Fired Up Stilettos established a correspondence with the Green Party, and credited Jan Logie and Chloe Swarbrick for giving them the confidence to engage in activism in the parliamentary context. The group has now expanded its communication with MPs from other parties, and have described their experience with the petitions process as being positive relative to their previous efforts with other avenues of resolution.
So what next? Phillips hopes the group are consulted on any drafting processes, should there be any legislative action as a result of the petition.
“If we sat down with lawmakers, we could come out with something that was not just fair for us but also fair for the venues. Because at the end of the day, we want venues to work out, we just don’t want them to be like this.”
