A group of strippers calling on the government to ban employers from fining contractors has been welcomed at Parliament. Photo: Supplied
A group of strippers calling on the government to ban employers from fining contractors has been welcomed at Parliament.
Fired Up Stilettos, a group of dancers fired from the Wellington club Calendar Girls after requesting better contracts, were hosted by the Green Party on Thursday night. They shared their experiences, and described having wages stolen and being exploited at work.
One dancer, Karma, said the strippers -who work as independent contractors - are fined by their managers for calling in sick, and there is no dispute process.
The group also called on the government to allow adult entertainment workers to bargain collectively, while maintaining self-employed status.
"We have been silenced for so long that it got to a point where we thought we need to take, we need to do something together, because none of us can stand up and fight this alone," dancer Molly told RNZ's Morning Report today.
"It's too dangerous and we'll just lose our jobs. So the idea was, if we all sign this letter, surely they can't fire all of us. And then they did that."
The women found out they had lost their positions at Calendar Girls via a Facebook post late last year, telling them to clear out their lockers.
They said it came after they tried to negotiate better contracts, after the club cut their share of the proceeds, and asked for better documentation of their pay so they could do their taxes.
They were also unhappy with the club's policy of fining them for so-called indiscretions such as being rude to customers or wearing thongs while collecting tips, instead of being fully nude.
"It depends on who you are, how bad it got - and I think that in itself is a marker of an abusive workplace," Molly said.
"For some, it was being harassed and bullied every shift and having management not to try and sell their bookings and impact their income; for some it was just kind of this always-present sense of fear and walking on eggshells, and if I if I mess up - whatever that may look like - I am not safe, necessarily."
Calendar Girls said most of the women told to clear out had already stopped working for the club - a claim Fired Up Stilettos have disputed - and they were free to reapply for shifts.
"I think that there's a lot of misinformation out there," a manager told RNZ in February. "It feels to me that [the dancers] are just throwing s..t at the wall to see what sticks."
Molly said the meeting at Parliament went "really, really well".
"We invited strippers and we invited some MPs to hear our message, and we presented all of the issues that we've been dealing with throughout forever."
Green MP Jan Logie told Newshub afterwards the current system is "exploitative" and after meeting the women, law reform "feels urgent".
She has previously appeared at pickets with some of the dancers and their supporters, as has well-known British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg].
Bit of night time industry solidarity after the show tonight in Wellington where the local strippers are out protesting for fair contracts and labour rights outside Calendar Girls strip club. #ThereIsPowerInAUnion https://t.co/TiryOnoFLl pic.twitter.com/IcJayB5QMo
— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) February 18, 2023
"We want to have someone holding the clubs accountable," Molly said. "That ensures that we are treated with respect and within the law, because the problem is that this is so widespread, because clubs are able to act like this if they want to, and most of them do choose to act like that.
"There's probably one or two clubs in New Zealand that don't, so we need someone holding these clubs accountable because they're not going to fix themselves."
Wellington stripper's advocacy group Fired Up Stilettos at a protest for better employment conditions on 18 February 2023 Photo: @19firedupstilettos
