Las Vegas from www.examiner.com – Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club in Las Vegas was hit with a class-action lawsuit claiming that the dancers that entertain in their club are not indpendent contractors and are in fact, employees entitled to regular wages and overtime. The suit follows a Nevada Supreme Court ruling last year allowing a similar class-action lawsuit against another topless club to proceed under state law claims.

If the lawsuit gets certified as class-action, it could represent 5000+ dancers that have worked at the club over the last two years. Sapphire, bills itself as the ‘Largest Gentlemen’s Club in the world’ at 70,000 square feet and claims to have 400 dancers in the club every evening. past and future dancers could be affected by this suit.

Independent contractor contracts are standard practice in the industry, the lawsuit claims Sapphire has so many rules governing the dancers’ working conditions that they don’t qualify as independent contractors. Sapphire requires dancers to work a minimum number of hours, cannot leave the club during their shift, cannot leave with customers nor allowed to date customers during off hours. These rules usually put in place to avoid breaking any Morals laws enacted in Las Vegas.

This suit could wreak havoc on Sapphire and their sister club Olympic Gardens, both owned by the Eliades family, along with many other clubs in Las Vegas.