After being orphaned at the age of 21, Queensland stripper Raven began working as a paralegal by day and a stripper by night.Dancers say a lack of basic working rights mean they can be fired for speaking out about workplace issues
But her time working in Brisbane came to an abrupt end when she says she was "blacklisted" from the industry after raising allegations of wage theft.While some venues treat dancers fairly, Raven said there were "a bad bunch of clubs" in Brisbane, run by "the same bad eggs", where staff were routinely mistreated and fired for speaking out.
Dancers say the taboo surrounding their industry leaves them with scant working rights and a reluctance to report crimes to police due to fears they would not be taken seriously.Raven says the Queensland Law Reform Commission's decision to exclude strippers from legal reforms is "heartbreaking". In Raven's case, her former employer said his club had never underpaid a dancer but acknowledged the case taken to Fair Work."I can categorically state no dancers are ever without payment for their services due to venue policy or procedure," he said.
"I went through all of the hostesses, the general managers, I went through the owner themselves and I could not get it back. I was just told 'ask this other person'."There's no protections for the dancers to get that money back. If management don't want to give it to you, they just don't give it to you."Tamara* has worked at several clubs over her five-year career.
"A lot of the time the club doesn't stock enough money or the machine that holds the money … it just breaks and they're like 'oh can't scan your tickets, hold on to them'. Instead, he said they have a "house fee", which applies as "an encouragement for entertainers to be as professional as possible with start and finish times and the communication of their roster".
Another club owner accused of workplace failures told the ABC their businesses face heavy regulation.
Live like a slut, get treated like one.