Lap Dancing in Edinburgh

Lawyers for United Sex Workers, a branch of the United Voices of the World (UVW) union successfully helped out against Bristol Council's bid to ban lap dancing. The group has now applied to help out in a legal case in Edinburgh where dancers are trying to reverse a moralist ban on lap dancing clubs in the city.

Lawyers for United Sex Workers have applied to the Court of Session to be allowed to participate in a judicial review of plans that will cost the loss of 100 jobs.

The council voted in March to close all four strip clubs in the capital.

United Sex Workers are crowd-funding to launch legal challenges against strip club bans across the UK, starting with a judicial review against Edinburgh City Council. We desperately need your help 203 any contributions you can offer will help us fight to keep our livelihoods afloat and our workplaces open.

Strip club bans violate workers' rights at a time of severe economic crisis. They form part of a wider attempt by the state to oppress precarious workers and dictate what women and other minorities can do with their bodies.

We **cannot** stop this without you, so please donate and share!

Background:

On the 31st March 2022, Edinburgh City Council voted in favor of a nil-cap on Sexual Entertainment Venue (known as SEVs) licenses - effectively shutting all Edinburgh strip clubs as of April 2023 and forbidding any new ones to open. The consequences of this for workers, including strippers, bar staff, and security, will be devasting.

This nil-cap is a result of one of the several SEV consultations that have taken place across the UK where workers' voices have been completely ignored. It leaves hundreds of precarious workers unemployed during a time of unprecedented financial insecurity and rising living costs.

Nil-caps are plainly unlawful as they discriminate against women and other marginalised groups, such as people with disabilities and migrants, who make up the majority of strippers. If Councils continue to adopt them, the consequences for workers across the UK will be devastating.

We have a legal team in place to challenge the nil-cap's compatibility with the Equality Act 2010 and are confident we will win. But we need your help!

Edinburgh's moralist councillors have voted to ban lap dancing clubs. The city's regulatory committee voted to ban sexual entertainment clubs in the city from April next year by a majority of five to four.

Councillor Cameron Rose claimed that the Scottish government's policy of preventing violence against women and girls gave a national definition which included commercial sexual exploitation, defined as lap and pole-dancing as well as stripping.

Performers and managers from Edinburgh clubs gave evidence at the online meeting. Alexis, who has worked as a dancer for 15 years, said she was proud of her job and did not want to find another job because being a performer did not fit into the committee's moral values. (We are) educated women making educated decisions about what's best for our lives , she said.

United Voices of the World, a union representing exotic performers, said it would go to court in a bid to overturn the decision, and said it would request a judicial review.

Danielle Worden, legal case worker for the union, said:

The union is extremely disappointed that the council has chosen to disregard its legal obligations and the relevant evidence by adopting a policy that discriminates against women.

Not only does this violate the Equality Act 2010, it is an act of cruelty to remove the livelihoods of hundreds of workers as we enter the worst economic crisis since the 1970s.

A Labour feminist councillor has blasted the Scottish Government for not banning sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) and calls for a de facto ban via a no drinks policy.

Edinburgh City Council is expected to press ahead with introducing a licensing regime for sexual entertainment venues (SEVs) after 65^ of people asked in a consultation backed a licensing regime.

The authority's regulatory officers said that it is clear there is strong support for the introduction of a licensing system for SEVs, but acknowledged there are a broad range of views concerning banning some of them via a cap on the number of venues or where SEVs can operate.

Labour Cllr Mandy Watt, who works for Rape Crisis Scotland spouted:

Sexual entertainment venues are relics of the past and they don't have a place in a modern city that values equality.

Instead the Scottish Government has passed onto councils a framework to try to work within when they simply should have banned them outright.

Given that they have not been banned, we should have a licensing system that should be very stringent around harm reduction.

Sexual entertainment and alcohol are not a good mix. I  would be keen to see venues having to surrender their alcohol licence and alcohol not be consumed on the premises.

Update: Censored whilst claiming to be uncensored

18th October 2019. See article from stv.tv

Shiri Shalmy, organiser for the group United Strippers of the World, said:

As the trade union representing dancers working in strip clubs across Scotland, we welcome Edinburgh Council's move to make clubs safer places for everyone involved.

As part of the consultation process, we urged the council to listen to the people who know the most about working conditions in strip clubs - the dancers themselves.

They are legal workplaces that support many women and families and should be considered with the same scrutiny as any other late night venues.

In particular, we want to ensure that dancers will no longer be misclassified as 'independent contractors' and could benefit from the rights they should have as workers, including the right to sick pay, holiday leave, a guaranteed minimum pay for all hours worked and access to trade union representation.

We hope that the introduction of SEV licensing will not lead to a decrease in the number of clubs. They are legal workplaces that support many women and families and should be considered with the same scrutiny as any other late night venues. Dancers already suffer unfair stigma and marginalisation - they shouldn't be penalised further.

Edinburgh's lap dancers have pointed out that banning strip clubs will force dancers to the unregulated underworld.

Edinburgh's consultation on Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) is coming to an end but dancers note that the consultation focuses on how best to drive strip clubs out of the public eye and could force stripping into criminality.

Shiri, a union representative for strippers at United Voices of the World, said:

The motivation to criminalise dancers in clubs comes from a middle-class, feminist point of view. Predominantly those who will suffer from any action to making working in strip clubs harder, are working-class women, who have fewer choices when it comes to career options -- many will be supporting family members or having to work around other commitments.

Creating conditions that criminalise, rather than protect dancers, will only force women underground, where they will face greater dangers to their safety and no protections when it comes to workers' rights.

We believe this consultation should take dancers' views into consideration -- they are the people who will be most affected.

Stacey Clare, who has worked in Edinburgh's West Port clubs for years, said:

We are working very hard with two trade unions to establish workers' rights in our industry, which has long failed to observe correct employment laws.

If strip clubs are shut down we lose the opportunity to do that, and we are pushed further into the precarious gig economy, where it is a lot harder to establish workers' rights.

Managers of Club Rouge in Lothian Road, Edinburgh, confirmed it had closed and would make way for Innis and Gunn's Beer Kitchen bar. Directors said their treatment by police made it impossible to continue operating.

But police said they had acted on clear evidence that the bar's licence conditions were being breached, but did not really provide enough details to be very convincing. A police spokeswoman said:

The licensee in this case took the decision to evict his tenant. This came after licensing officers identified numerous offences at the premises and brought them to the attention of the licensee.

A spokesman for the club said:

We'r e quite upset we had to close it. To be honest, we feel that we were forced out. We had the pressure from the local police. The trigger was constant visits. Harassment would be a word [to describe the situation].

Club Rouge recently claimed to be the only lap-dancing bar in the city that does not require its dancers to fully undress and has made efforts to diversify into non-adult entertainment offerings over the last 18 months. A spokesman said the club had stopped full strip teases since August and it was now a venue where couples can go and where businessmen can take their clients .

Perhaps the closure also had something to do with the selected niche not proving popular.

Club Rouge claims to be the only lap-dancing bar in the city that does not require its dancers to fully undress and has made efforts to diversify into non-adult entertainment offerings over the last 18 months.

A spokesman said the club had stopped full strip teases since August and it was now a venue where couples can go and where businessmen can take their clients . The club has expanded into burlesque, cabaret, and life art classes.

At a licensing hearing, club bosses pleaded to be allowed a 3am drinking permit, arguing its entertainment base had widened beyond exotic dancing and should not be confined to the standard 1am closing policy in place for Edinburgh strip clubs.

However, licensing chiefs were unconvinced by the argument and turned down the application.

Managers at Club Rouge in Edinburgh has said that efforts are under way to create an independent dance censor which would cooperate with licensing officers and police to ensure elf 'n' safety in strip clubs and adult entertainment venues across the Capital and Scotland.

They said the body would issue certificates of good practice to businesses only after they introduced measures to clamp down on abusive customers, unhygienic working environments and unfair charges imposed on dancers when clubs are busy or when they phone in sick.

Day-to-day monitoring and enforcement would still be carried out by police and licensing officers though.

Alex Smith, manager of Club Rouge, said:

This is an opportunity for the clubs to say that from now on, they're going to work together for a better environment.

He said meetings would soon take place with senior councillors to move the process forward, with the new dance censor on a voluntary basis and financed through a mixture of public money and contributions from the industry.

Licensing staff said they were receptive to the idea. A spokeswoman said:

The council would welcome any initiative to encourage industry good practice, however we would need more information on this specific proposal to be able to comment further.