Exotic Dancers Win $1.1 Million in Worker Misclassification Case

A Baltimore nightclub must pay more than $1.1 million to exotic dancers who say it misclassified them as independent contractors and deprived them of some wages, after a default judgment in federal court.

The workers accused PP&G Inc., which does business as Norma Jean’s Nite Club, of violating state and federal wage-and-hour laws. Norma Jean’s answered the complaint but failed to fulfill its discovery obligations, leading the US District Court for the District of Maryland to issue a default judgment.

The dancers said that although Norma Jean’s classified them as independent contractors, they were really employees entitled to more robust employment protections, such as minimum wage. They sued the nightclub, its co-owners, and a since-deceased manager on behalf of a proposed Fair Labor Standards Act collective.

The workers sought terminating sanctions in September for what they described as Norma Jean’s “continued refusal to comply with this Court’s discovery orders and discovery obligations.” The court in October granted the sanctions request, entered a default judgment against all defendants, and referred the case to a magistrate judge to determine the appropriate damages amount. It denied the workers’ conditional collective certification request as moot in December.

The magistrate judge in May recommended that the defendants be required to pay out more than $1.1 million in damages. Judge Julie R. Rubin mostly adopted the magistrate’s report in an order docketed Monday, but modified it to leave out the individual defendants.

The court’s October default judgment order “erroneously” included all of the defendants when it should have applied solely to Norma Jean’s, Rubin said. “The court is at fault for creating the instant confusion” by including the three individual defendants when the workers never served them with process and Norma Jean’s attorneys didn’t represent them, according to the order.

The four worker plaintiffs will receive individual payments ranging from approximately $199,000 to more than $365,000, Rubin said. The court directed the dancers to file a petition for attorneys’ fees within 14 days.

Hodges & Foty LLP and Melehy & Associates LLC represent the workers. Prevas & Prevas represents Norma Jean’s.

The case is Butler v. PP&G Inc., D. Md., No. 1:20-cv-03084, order docketed 6/26/23.