Facts

Court records indicate that Star Garden, a topless dance club under the ownership and operation of defendants 6630 Lankershim Inc., Cyberstrip Enterprises Inc., and Akop Gasparyan, hired plaintiffs Donna Fuller, Lucy Kapetanich, Valerie Kerr, Lisa McGrath, April Wyman, and Kathleen McTeague to dance at their establishment.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
The plaintiffs contended that defendants did not pay minimum wage, overtime, benefits, or vacation pay. Furthermore, they claimed defendants violated Labor Code sections 201, 202, 351, and 1194 by charging each plaintiff $10 per dance shift. Specifically, if plaintiffs skip a dance shift, they had to pay defendants $10. The plaintiffs also asserted that they were required to give each bouncer 5 percent and the disc jockey 10 percent of their earned gratuities for each dance shift, with at least $5 to each bouncer and $10 to the disc jockey per shift. Plaintiffs further claimed that defendants violated Labor Code sections 226.7, 353, 1174, and 226 as breaks and meal periods were not given, gratuities earned were left unrecorded, payroll records were not upheld, and payroll statements were not provided to plaintiffs. Some of the plaintiffs also argued that they never signed any dancer performance lease and if a lease was signed it was illegal and void according to California law.

DEFENDANT'S CONTENTIONS:
The defendants asserted that plaintiffs were not categorized as employees and that the relationship was maintained under a dancer performance lease. Each dancer was classified as an independent contractor and as a lessee who leased the stages, owned by defendants, for performance purposes. Also, each plaintiff exerted control over her schedule and dance presentations.

Damages

Court records show that plaintiffs McGrath claimed $120,932, Fuller claimed $79,155, Kapetanich claimed $69,887, McTeague claimed $34,329, Wyman claimed $86,604, and Kerr claimed $18,090.

Result

Arbitration took place before the Hon. Harvey Schneider (Retired), who awarded damages and attorneys' fees to the plaintiffs in the amount of $687,500. The arbitrator reviewed the facts under the principals set forth in S.G. Borello and Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal. 3d 341, and found that the plaintiffs were clearly employees and that status could not be changed by defendants by engaging in the subterfuge of having plaintiffs execute lease agreements. The court entered judgment. The plaintiffs also received fees and costs amounting to $2,275 to confirm the award.

Other Information

FILING DATE: Aug. 15, 2006.