Legal News

A lap dancer at Stringfellows club which claimed, she was only self-employed and that her contract was void for illegality on grounds of her falsely representing her income in tax returns and in an application for child tax credit has been rejected by a tribunal.
Counsel for the club argued that the club was not obliged to provide work for Nadine Quashie on the nights she danced and she could “earn no money and even make a loss”.
Stringfellows said that it was a common practice in the business for dancers to be self-employed and it was “in the public interest” that they should be.
An employment tribunal agreed that Quashie was self-employed, but did not rule on the separate issue of whether her contract was void for illegality.
An Employment Appeal Tribunal overruled the earlier ruling that she was not an employer.
On the nights the claimant attended, the respondent was obliged to provide the opportunity for her to dance. It imposed a requirement to dance on the stage at various times during the night without pay.
Opportunity to attract customers was very definitely a mutual benefit, Judge McMullen said. Claimant would not have attended if she was made to sit with the house mum throughout the night.
Judge McMullen added that each night she attended the claimant was obliged to work as directed by the management or she did not provide the free dances or other duties, she could be fined.
He said that mere attendance on the night was due to the requirement that she work meaning she had to turn up and stay throughout the night shift on pain of fine or deduction
She took the risk of not being paid anything, but she was willing to accept that on the basis that she is available for it, and indeed she accepts the obligation to do free dances. All of those conclusions pointed that on the night the claimant was an employee.
Judge McMullen said the employment tribunal was wrong to conclude that the claimant was not an employee on each night she performed work and in the intervening stages, when she was on the rota to perform work, on holiday, and at all stages in between.
He upheld Quashie’s claim that she was an employee. However, he allowed the club’s cross-appeal on the issue of illegality. He remitted the case to a fresh three-person tribunal to determine both questions.