Stripped down to its basics, a federal class-action lawsuit against a Harborcreek Township strip club centers on federal employment law.
Two former exotic dancers at Partners Gentlemen’s Club have sued in U.S. District Court in Erie, claiming the club wrongly classified them and other dancers as independent contractors and violated the law by failing to pay them minimum wage and keeping or deducting their tips.
The dancers claim Partners should have treated them as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The dancers want a judge to award back wages and other compensation to them and other dancers who worked at Partners. The suit estimates the proposed class includes more than 40 dancers.
Partners, the suit claims, paid the women “no wages for the shifts or hours” they worked as exotic dancers, including when they performed “fully nude.”
The suit states: “The only money Plaintiffs and Class Members received in exchange for working as exotic dancers within the Club consisted of (a) tips handed to them by customers while performing, and (b) the portion of customers’ payments for private, ‘room,’ VIP and ‘gold coin’ dances that Defendant did not keep for itself.” The suit also claims Partners failed to permit the dancers “to keep or retain all tips.”
Two women are lead plaintiffs in suit
Plaintiffs Dayonna Brace and Danielle Jones sued on Oct. 22. Brace worked at Partners from August 2020 through July 2026 and Jones from February 2025 through July 2026, according to the suit.
The suit names one defendant: Partners Tavern Inc., doing business as Partners Gentlemen’s Club, 4712 East Lake Road. The suit identifies George Askins as the owner of Partners and Fred Gemler as its general manager, but the suit does not name them as defendants.
Partners did not respond to a written request for comment that the Erie Times-News left in the club’s mailbox along with a copy of the lawsuit. Partners will have an opportunity to respond to the suit in court, where the case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter.
Case is like others against strip clubs
Erie lawyer Timothy McNair is the plaintiffs’ local counsel. He referred questions to lead counsel Gregg Greenberg, of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Greenberg has represented exotic dancers in similar cases nationwide, including a lawsuit in Maryland that he successfully litigated and called “a major civil rights victory” in 2016. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case against Partners is similar to a federal lawsuit that an exotic dancer filed in 2020 against another local strip club, Juliet’s, 2022 W. Eighth St. in Erie.
That dancer, who also pursued a class-action case, claimed Juliet’s and its owner wrongly classified her and other dancers as contractors rather than employees and failed to pay them minimum wage. The suit settled a little over three months after it was filed.
The lawsuits against Juliet’s and Partners resemble others that exotic dancers brought nationwide over pay practices. In one example, nine dancers in Florida were awarded a total of $1.8 million in back wages and damages after a federal jury ruled for them in 2018 in a suit against the King of Diamonds, a well-known club in Miami.
Lawsuit cites working conditions to back claim
In the lawsuit against Partners, the plaintiffs said the conditions under which they worked supported their claim that they were employees rather than independent contractors. Among other things, they cited the club’s investment in and control over the workplace.
According to the suit: “Defendant made and paid for every significant investment in the Club’s business, including the premises, stage, poles, lighting, sound and DJ equipment, VIP rooms, dressing room, kitchen, ATM, surveillance cameras and advertising, while Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ investment was limited to the costumes, footwear, and cosmetics that Defendant’s appearance requirements obliged them to buy.”
