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Know Your Rights
Source: WNYC Public Radio
Subject: Workplace Justice
Type: Media Coverage

Waitresses Sue Queens Employer

A Queens club that charges men $2 per song to dance
with a waitress has been sued for labor violations.

WNYC’s Kathleen Horan caught up with some of the
"dancers" who are part of the suit against the Flamingo Nightclub in Jackson Heights.

Opposite the elevated 7 train, is a gentlemen’s
club where there’s salsa and meringue. But here, the dancers say they’re
required to wear skimpy fantasy costumes.

Diana Trejos is 1 of 11 employees who is suing. She
says she didn’t get paid minimum wage. She got charged to work instead and
fined for a laundry list of infractions, including calling in sick.

TREJOS: Pay for the work, pay the fines and long
hours, the work.

REPORTER: A lawyer for the owners has said in
published reports that dancers don’t have to rent space and they can come and
go as they like. But Irene
Teung
, of the
advocate group
Make The
Road New York
, says the alleged abuse goes way beyond standard labor violations.

TEUNG: For a period, the manager even had to check the toilet to make sure
they weren’t using too much toilet paper before they flushed.

REPORTER: Teung says the workers plan to picket the club until
conditions improve.

For WNYC, I’m Kathleen
Horan.