Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.08.2007, Qupperneq 5

08_REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_ISSUE 1_007_ARTICLE/STRIPPING
After the recent publication of an article in the
Grapevine about the new hospitality industry
licensing laws concerning stripping and prostitu-
tion in Iceland, two former dancers of Club Óðal,
a strip club in downtown Reykjavík, contacted
the paper alleging that the club was infringing
the laws on tax, labour rights, and prostitution
– allegations which the owner of the club ve-
hemently denies. This article attempts to shed
some light on those allegations.
To put this information into context, a sum-
mary of the new laws is useful. The laws prohibit
strip dancing, the fraternisation of clients by
dancers, and private strip dancing. However,
according to Sigurður Freyr Sigurðsson, a lawyer
at Reykjavík Police, clubs can continue to offer
strip dancing but not private dancing, if they
are granted permission by the police and health
and safety authorities. Prostitution is now legal
on the condition that a third person does not
profit from the act, and therefore continues to
be illegal in strip clubs.
The Allegations
Among the allegations was the claim that the
club was not paying the dancers the amount
they had been guaranteed when they were
hired. Despite being told that they would get
paid 40% of the cost of a five-minute private
dance, the price of which is 5,000 ISK, the
women who approached the Grapevine claimed
that at Club Óðal they were only receiving a
total of 280 ISK (after taxes and pension fund
contributions were deducted) from that amount,
while at other clubs they pocket 50% of the
cost of a private dance and are not taxed at
such a high rate.
“If you make 300,000 [ISK] a month,
you probably come out with 100,000 [ISK]. It
shouldn’t be like that. And [the club] is supposed
to be the best club [in Iceland] but that is the
only club that does it,” the women say.
According to them, “about half” of the
dancers at the club have quit in recent weeks
citing complaints of pay, the conditions in the
club and also slow business.
The Response
To put these claims into perspective, the Grape-
vine contacted another club in the Reykjavík
area and asked what they pay their employ-
ees for private dancing. Ásgeir Þór Davíðsson,
owner of Goldfinger, a strip club in the town
of Kópavogur, and Bóhem (Iceland’s first erotic
club) in Reykjavík, confirmed that the dancers
that work at his clubs are paid “more or less”
50% of the cost of a private dance.
Grétar Ingi Berndsen, the owner of Club
Óðal, denies the womens’ claims of wrong-
doing. “All the girls work in the club by the
conditions in the contract – if it says 60–40,
then that’s what they get. They do get 60–40.
These are just allegations. We’ve had hundreds
of girls here – some come back every year,” he
says.
When Berndsen was pressed to speculate
on any circumstances where a dancer might
only receive 280 ISK from a 5,000 ISK dance,
he replied that while he may not be at the club
100% of the time, he does keep a close eye on
how it’s managed.
“The contracts [and salaries] are by law and
done by a computer like at all other companies
– it’s not done by hand or by individuals,” he
says. “It’s not in our interest [to not pay the
girls correctly].”
Berndsen was asked if he saw any reason
why two ex-employees would make such strong
allegations. “The girls are quite good at calcu-
lating their own salaries – they know more or
less what they make each month,” he replied.
“[But] it’s a misunderstanding. Everything is a
see-through system here.”
When the Grapevine asked for the specific
break-up of the pay, Berndsen explained that
from a 5,000 ISK dance, a 1,000 ISK service fee
is first deducted. From the remaining 4,000 ISK,
the women earn around 1,500 ISK, or 30%.
Not quite 40%, but close.
According to the club’s accountant, who
requested to remain anonymous, the women
earn from 30% to 100% of the remaining 4,000
ISK. The accountant explained that the amount
that individual dancers make heavily depends
on how many drinks they sell. Yet, the dancers
who contacted the Grapevine maintain that
they receive a maximum of 280 ISK (after taxes
and other deductions) per five-minute dance
regardless of how many drinks they sell.
Paying Taxes
Despite being self-employed and, as such,
responsible for paying their taxes, the women
also claimed that the club was deducting their
taxes and pension fund contributions from
their salary on their behalf.
“They [the club] say that they’ll pay the
taxes for me, but they never ask me or the
other girls, if that is OK, since we are self-em-
ployed,” one of the girls said and continued:
“At the tax office, I’m not even registered. They
put in my kennitala [social security number]
and it doesn’t show up. And at the union they
say “well, you’ve been working here but you
don’t pay tax.” Well, they pay [our] tax all the
time, but it’s not there [in the system].”
Óðal’s accountant says that the tax laws in
Iceland dictate that companies are required to
pay the taxes of short term foreign workers,
including those that are self-employed, in order
to ensure that their taxes are collected before
they leave the country. However, Guðrún Ásta
Sigurðardóttir, Director of Internal Revenue in
the International Division at the tax office in
Reykjavík confirmed that self-employees are
responsible for their own taxes. “Self-employed
persons are never employees, so a company
cannot represent them or act on their behalf,”
she says. Sigurðardóttir also confirmed that
companies are not legally allowed to seek the
permission of self-employees to act on their
behalf.
The dancers claim that the club is taxing
them more than they are required to pay. “They
say that ‘we’re doing you a favour by paying
your taxes for you’ [but] they’re stealing from
the girls,” they say. “You have to understand
that we decided to do this [contact the Grape-
vine] because we don’t like when people steal
our money. It’s one of the clubs that is making
a lot of money – there is no doubt about that.
They always have their money, but the girls
don’t. You make a lot, but after they take out
so many things [taxes, pension fund contribu-
tions], you end up with nothing […] and it just
never adds up.”
According to the two women, the other
dancers at Club Óðal have similar grievances
about the conditions in the club, but hesitate
to complain in fear of losing their jobs and
work visas.
When the Grapevine contacted Berndsen
and asked him to respond to the allegations,
he invited us to check out the premises and
presented documents that showed that the
taxes were indeed taken out of the womens’
salaries by the club. When asked for an ex-
planation as to why the club was paying the
womens’ (who are apparently self-employed,
and therefore responsible for their own taxes)
taxes on their behalf, Berndsen said: “Some of
the girls are self-employed while others are not.
It depends on which country they are coming
from – there are different rules in different
countries.” However, to make matters even
more contradictory, Óðal’s accountant stated
that all the women working at the club were
in fact self-employed.
While both the owner and the accountant
of the club were happy to discuss these mat-
ters with the Grapevine, the women claim that
they do not receive the same treatment by staff
at the club when they request information
about their salary. “If you have any questions,
everywhere else there is no problem. They sit
down with you and they explain [everything]
to you. At Óðal, they can’t even tell you the
name of the pension fund the money is going
to.”
Berndsen denies these claims, adding that
the girls are provided with detailed information
about their pay. “It’s being done by the book
– there is extreme surveillance from the tax
office,” he stressed. “Why don’t these girls
go to the police or their union if they have a
problem?”
Prostitution in the Club?
Club Óðal’s website states that the dancers
“dance top-less on stage, provide fully nude
dances and accompany the customers dur-
ing their stay at the club”. But, according to
the women who approached the Grapevine,
some of the dancers are taking this one step
further.
“There are some girls in there that are sell-
ing themselves, doing more than they should
be doing. I’ve heard some of them offer them-
selves. You see what is going on,” they say.
“Girls do get away with it […] and, when you
complain they say ‘oh, yeah, we’ll speak with
her’ but, if this was in [another country] you’d
be out of the club – no exception.”
The women explain that by turning a blind
eye when dancers provide extra “services”,
customers start to expect more from all the
women working at the club.
“Basically, every night you’re working you
have to explain to them [the clients] ‘listen if
you look in the dictionary there is a big differ-
ence between prostitution and dancing’ […]
and then they walk out of a private dance
because they realise ‘oh, she’s not going give
it to me,’” they say.
Berndsen gave the Grapevine a tour of
the club’s premises. Considering the openness
of both the dancing and seating areas in the
club and the door to the VIP room supposedly
being left open – it seems unlikely that any
such activity taking place at the club itself
would go unnoticed and he strongly denies
claims that prostitution is taking place in his
club. “Of course this is just nonsense. They are
obviously frustrated that they’re not making
enough money. There are very strict rules,
and the police are here every night,” he says.
Berndsen adds that his club is licensed and
that he is on good terms with the police.
In the week leading up to the publication
of this article, the decision was made by police
not to grant Iceland’s most successful strip club,
Goldfinger, permission to continue offering
strip dancing until “certain issues in the club
are resolved.” The closure of Strawberries, a
“champagne club” in downtown Reykjavík,
by police for operating outside of its license,
as well as the review of Club Óðal’s license
by Reykjavík City Council, was also widely
reported in the local media.
While the Grapevine went to great lengths to
confirm some of the claims mentioned in this
story, because of the nature of the material
and the commitment made to keep the iden-
tity of the original sources anonymous, it was
not possible to confirm many of the “facts”
and figures quoted by both the club and the
dancers. In addition, the Ministry of Justice
declined to answer some of the specific ques-
tions posed by the Grapevine, citing the reason
of not wanting to “prejudge the outcome of
any possible court cases bearing resemblance
to the situations described”.
Strippers’ Claims Disclosed
Text by Zoë Robert Photo by Gulli
“They say that ‘we’re do-
ing you a favour by pay-
ing your taxes for you’
[but] they’re stealing from
the girls.”
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