By Jeremy Walsh
Suffolk County residents Luis Ruiz and Edith D'Angelo, owners of the Flamingo Club at 85-12 Jackson Ave., did not pay the dancers any wages, paid other workers less than the minimum wage and failed to pay overtime, the plaintiffs allege.Ruiz and D'Angelo currently live in a home in Dix Hills, L.I., records show. They also own a $670,000 home in Bayside currently being renovated, according to city Department of Buildings records.According to state Liquor Authority records, Ruiz and D'Angelo also own Julie's Bar and Restaurant in Long Island City.The dancers, known as “bailarinas,” are women who take tips to dance with men on the dance floor. The practice is common in bars and clubs frequented by immigrants underneath the elevated No. 7 train tracks on Roosevelt Avenue.The dancers and bar workers are seeking back wages, a matching amount for damages and payment of legal fees, according to court papers filed in Brooklyn federal court last Thursday.Peter Rubin, attorney for Ruiz and D'Angelo, did not return phone calls from the TimesLedger.Elizabeth Wagoner, an attorney with Make the Road New York Inc., a Brooklyn-based immigrant advocacy group that helped the dancers and employees file the suit, said the catalyst was “the sense that their rights at work had been violated in really shocking ways, beyond anything they had ever really experienced.”The dancers claim the only money they made was the tips from the men they danced with at a price of $2 per song or $40 per hour, court documents show.They were also required to dance during a nightly set of songs – when they were not allowed to accept tips – called “women's liberation time” by the owners, the suit claims.The dancers also allege D'Angelo and Ruiz tracked the time each dancer spent in the dressing room and restroom and required them to pay a fee of $11 to enter the club at the start of each shift.Mandatory, unpaid meetings were held for two hours after the dancers' 12-hour shifts, the dancers claimed.The dancers were also required to acquire special costumes for theme nights like cowgirl, schoolgirl, nurse, police, formal, pajama, Arab and miniskirt nights, the suit claims.They claim Ruiz occasionally spilled champagne on them while they worked, soaking their clothing, and sometimes shoved them toward customers, encouraging them to dance.The case's next court date is on hold while the plaintiffs wait for the defendants to answer the suit, Wagoner said.Katy Gagnon contributed to this story.Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
