She said her calculation did not include additional penalties that could be recouped under the Private Attorneys General Act, known as PAGA. While class counsel had estimated the full verdict value of the plaintiffs’ claims at $32 million, Liss-Riordan wrote that data she reviewed led her to calculate damages of more than $102 million for the 1.5-year period at issue. She filed an objection to the San Diego settlement on behalf dancers at Deja Vu clubs, arguing that it would provide “minimal compensation” to the dancers. in Boston, who has gained prominence for filing worker misclassification suits against gig-economy giants like Uber and Lyft. Objection and a RejectionĮnter Liss-Riordan, a partner at Lichten & Liss-Riordan P.C. “This settlement provides substantial benefits and monetary recovery for defendants’ alleged wage and hour violations,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in a court filing. The $1.5 million settlement would have also provided about $900,000 to the dancers in the class, or roughly $300 per dancer if half of the dancers were located and cashed their checks as estimated. “Defendants dictate: the hours of operation length of shifts dancers must work the show times during which a dancer may perform minimum dance tips determine the sequence in which a dancer may perform on stage during her stage rotation the format and themes of dancers’ performances (including their costuming and appearances),” the suit stated.Īs part of a proposed settlement filed with the San Diego court last fall covering roughly 5,800 dancers with claims against 25 strip clubs, Deja Vu agreed to convert all the class members to employee status. To make their case they should have been classified as employees, the exotic dancers cited multiple examples of how the defendants had control over their activities at work. The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed. The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business. The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work. In its unanimous April 2018 Dynamex decision, the state Supreme Court adopted a so-called ABC test featuring three factors an employer must establish to demonstrate a worker is properly classified as an independent contractor. The suit alleged that under both the Dynamex decision and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the dancers had been miscast as independent contractors. One of four initial class representatives, who were all unnamed, was a dancer who had performed at Deja Vu Showgirls in San Diego. The class-action lawsuit filed against Deja Ju Services last May in San Diego Superior Court was brought on behalf of exotic dancers at Deja Vu-affiliated clubs statewide. It even prompted Daniels, an adult entertainer best known for her claimed affair with President Donald Trump, to publicly advocate for allowing strippers to remain independent contractors. Meanwhile, legislation introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego to codify the court’s decision has already sparked plenty of public discussion and drawn the ire of business groups. The case, filed in late January, could be a harbinger of similar suits to come as companies grapple with how to comply with the California Supreme Court’s 2018 Dynamex decision that makes it more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors. Liss-Riordan also represents dancers in a new class-action suit filed in San Diego claiming that even though Deja Vu clubs have now made their dancers employees, they retaliated against them for their prior legal activities by drastically cutting their pay. They have done so in part through lawsuits asserting exotic dancers should be treated as employees rather independent contractors, and San Diego Superior Court has been one key venue for the litigation seeking to expose strip clubs’ alleged unlawful practices.Ī class-action complaint filed here last year targeted alleged worker misclassification by Las Vegas-based Deja Vu Services Inc., which operates dozens of strip clubs nationwide, including Deja Vu Showgirls on Midway Drive.Ī judge rejected a settlement of that case in late 2018 after Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney who’s taken on prominent gig-economy companies, objected on behalf of dancers to what she alleged would be a paltry payout to the entertainers. Strippers, including Stormy Daniels, have strutted to the forefront of the vibrant worker classification debate in California. The Deja Vu Showgirls San Diego strip club / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
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