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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Thursday,

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Speaker 2: the third of August.

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Speaker 3: I'm Zara Seidler, I'm Sam Kazlowski.

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Speaker 2: Three dancers who have worked for pop star Lizzo are

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Speaker 2: suing the artist over a toxic workplace, with allegations including

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Speaker 2: sexual harassment and fat shaming. Two of the dancers who

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Speaker 2: are bringing the lawsuit were discovered through Lizzo's reality TV

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Speaker 2: show Watch Out for the Big Girls.

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Speaker 4: Girls that look like me don't get representation count pull

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Speaker 4: up musleas find them myself. Ah.

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Speaker 2: Now, the dancers are suing for damages including loss of

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Speaker 2: income and a distress. So what are the allegations and

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Speaker 2: what will it mean for Lizzo. We'll let you know

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Speaker 2: in the Deep Dive. But first, some news out of Parliament.

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Speaker 3: That's right. The Federal Government's Housing Bill has been reintroduced

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Speaker 3: to Parliament. It comes after the legislation was voted down

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Speaker 3: in the Senate earlier this year. If the bill fails again,

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Speaker 3: it could trigger a double dissolution, which is when both

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Speaker 3: the Senate and the House of Representatives are dissolved in

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Speaker 3: order for a federal election to take place.

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Speaker 2: Woolworths has been accused of underpaying its staff over one

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Speaker 2: million dollars in long service leave. The under payments allegedly

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Speaker 2: affected one thy two hundred employees between twenty eighteen and

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. The claim was made by the Victorian

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Speaker 2: Wage Inspectorate and is due to be heard in Melbourne's

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Speaker 2: Magistrates Court in September.

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Speaker 3: Over one hundred and thirty thousand Australians made a voluntary

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Speaker 3: payment to their hextet in May. This was a month

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Speaker 3: before student loans went up by seven point one percent,

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Speaker 3: which was the largest indexation in decades. The number of

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Speaker 3: Australians who made one of those voluntary payments in twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty three was about three times higher than last year's

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Speaker 3: voluntary hex contributions. The figures were given to TDA under

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Speaker 3: Freedom of information laws and if you want to hear

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Speaker 3: more about how hex works have thrown a link in

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Speaker 3: today's show notes.

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Speaker 2: And the good news. Wild tiger populations have grown in

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Speaker 2: India and Bhutan. India recorded an average total of three thousand,

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Speaker 2: six hundred and eighty two tigers, up from numbers of

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Speaker 2: less than two thousand in the seventies. The growth has

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Speaker 2: been hailed as a success for tiger conservation. Three of

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Speaker 2: Lizzo's former dancers are suing her for a toxic workplace.

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Speaker 2: The dancers, whose names are Crystal Williams, Ariana Davis, and

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Speaker 2: Noel Rodriguez, alleged that Lizzo and her management subjected them

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Speaker 2: to sexual harassment, religious harassment, and fat phobia. The lawsuit

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Speaker 2: was filed in LA and it was first by NBC

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Speaker 2: News yesterday.

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Speaker 3: I was at Splendor in the Grass couple of weeks

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Speaker 3: ago and saw Lizzo. She headlined on the Friday Night

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Speaker 3: For anyone that doesn't know her, who is Lizzo And

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Speaker 3: where's this story start?

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Speaker 4: So?

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Speaker 2: Lizzo is a rapper, she's a singer, she's a songwriter.

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Speaker 2: She's a flute player. That's another thing that she has

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Speaker 2: under her belt. And She's won four Grammys, so she's

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Speaker 2: a really really big pop star currently. She was just

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Speaker 2: in Australia, as you said, she was headlining Splendor. She

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Speaker 2: did it a couple of side shows here in Sydney,

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Speaker 2: also in Melbourne.

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Speaker 3: At such And when you say side shows, she sells

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Speaker 3: out stadiums.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no denying it. Lizzo is a really really

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Speaker 2: popular artist at the moment. So to go back to

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Speaker 2: the story and why we're talking about Lizzo today, this

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Speaker 2: story begins with some of Lizzo's dances. Now, two of

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Speaker 2: three of those dancers who are suing Lizzo started working

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Speaker 2: for her touring company after they were selected through her

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Speaker 2: TV show called Watch Out for the Big Girls.

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Speaker 4: What's up, y'all, it's Lizzo. I'm looking for dancers to

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Speaker 4: join me on my tour. Girls that look like me

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Speaker 4: don't get representation. Kind of pull up my sleeves find

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Speaker 4: them myself. It's hard to love yourself in the world

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Speaker 4: that doesn't love you back. You are created, especially in

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Speaker 4: your image, for you to enjoy. You don't have to

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Speaker 4: be light skinned, you don't have to be skinny, You're

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Speaker 4: just beautiful the way you are.

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Speaker 1: I need to show.

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Speaker 2: One of the dancers who auditioned for the show was

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Speaker 2: someone called Arianna Davis.

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Speaker 5: Hey, Lizzo, this is Ariana, and I'm super excited to

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Speaker 5: get the chance to audition for your dancer and Model search. Lizzo,

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Speaker 5: you are changing the game for women and girls everywhere,

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Speaker 5: and I just want to be a part of that journey.

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Speaker 2: Davis was successful on the show, and she ended up

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Speaker 2: working for Lizzo's company, Big Girl, Big Touring in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one.

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Speaker 5: Come with me for the official first tour day of

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Speaker 5: the Lizzo Special Tour as a background dancer.

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Speaker 2: And then she joined Lizzo on tour in twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 3: Us We're so.

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Speaker 5: Cute on consumes, Oh my gosh, A degree you and

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Speaker 5: then the crowd was doing Loise and Dog.

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Speaker 1: Oh my God.

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Speaker 2: But according to the allegations made by Davis and two

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Speaker 2: other dancers who were on tour with her, things were

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Speaker 2: not what they seemed.

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Speaker 3: I think it's important here to emphasize that what we're

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Speaker 3: discussing today are allegations that have been made in a

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Speaker 3: case that we yet to see actually play out in court.

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Speaker 3: So what we're reporting on is purely from the complaint

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Speaker 3: made by these three dancers. At this point, while we're

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Speaker 3: recording this conversation, Lizzo and her management company have not

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Speaker 3: made a public comment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So what we're going off is from

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Speaker 2: the three dancers in question, and remember that's Davis who

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Speaker 2: we've just heard from, Rodriguez and Williams. Now they've made

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Speaker 2: nine claims against senior employees in the Big Girl Big

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Speaker 2: Touring Company. It should be said that not all the

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Speaker 2: claims relate directly to Lizzo, but the lawsuit argues that

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Speaker 2: Lizo should be held responsible for all alleged wrongdoing.

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Speaker 3: As the emplay, I want to go through some of

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Speaker 3: these allegations in more detail. There's nine claims. As you said,

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Speaker 3: what allegations are being made about sexual harassment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is one area that was covered in

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Speaker 2: the lawsuit. So the dancers alleged that there was and

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Speaker 2: I'm quoting here, an overtly sexual atmosphere in the workplace,

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Speaker 2: and that this was actually led by Lizzo herself. The

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Speaker 2: laws It alleges that on a night out in Amsterdam,

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Speaker 2: which the dancers felt pressured to attend, Lizzo pressured them

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Speaker 2: into touching and interacting with sex workers. Davis, who is

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Speaker 2: of course the dancer that we spoke about earlier, alleges

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Speaker 2: that when she repeatedly declined, Lizzo led a chance to

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Speaker 2: pressure her, then mocked her when she reluctantly agreed.

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Speaker 3: Okay, So, separate to those sexual harassment allegations, there are

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Speaker 3: more allegations about racism and fat shaming.

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Speaker 2: So the dancers alleged that Lizo's tour management discriminated against

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Speaker 2: them on the basis of their color and their weight.

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Speaker 2: The dancers described themselves in the la lawsuit as quote

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Speaker 2: full figured women of color. They alleged that the predominantly

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Speaker 2: white managers spoke to them with racial and fat phobic animus,

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Speaker 2: so that means something like hostility, including suggesting that they

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Speaker 2: were lazy and unprofessional. Davis also alleges that Lizzo commented

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Speaker 2: on her weight gain and that she made thinly veiled

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Speaker 2: comments implying her weight game indicated she wasn't committed to

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Speaker 2: her job.

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Speaker 3: Zara, As you said before, Lizzo isn't the only one

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Speaker 3: implicated in these allegations. Who else in her team is

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Speaker 3: named in this lawsuit?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So, the lawsuit also alleges that Lizzo's dance captain, whose

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Speaker 2: name is Shirlene Quiggly, who's also being sued, subjected the

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Speaker 2: dances to religious harassment and inappropriate sexual commentary. The dancers

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Speaker 2: alleged that Quigly regularly lectured them about her Christianity, interrogated

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Speaker 2: Davis about her virginity, and punished Rodriguez for being a

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Speaker 2: non believer. It's also alleged that Quigley frequently discussed her

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Speaker 2: personal sexual habits and fantasies at work.

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Speaker 3: And again it's important to remember we haven't heard from

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Speaker 3: Lizo or her team on these allegations, but there's also

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Speaker 3: a whole economic sides to what's being leveled at Lizo.

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Speaker 3: They're claiming a loss of wages. What are the dancers

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Speaker 3: alleging here.

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Speaker 2: Well, they're suggesting that they were strongly discouraged from taking

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Speaker 2: up additional work with other artists. And that's important because

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Speaker 2: they're saying that they weren't being paid a retainer for

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Speaker 2: periods when they weren't working with Lizo, So in the

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Speaker 2: interim when there wasn't a tour, they're suggesting that they

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Speaker 2: weren't able to have any kind of financial stability. They

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Speaker 2: said that when they requested a retainer. They alleged that

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Speaker 2: the response from management was vindictive, including from Lizo Specifically,

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Speaker 2: they alleged that Lizzo criticized the dancers, accused them of

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Speaker 2: drinking at work, and threatened to fire them at one point,

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Speaker 2: allegedly subjecting them to a twelve hour re audition with

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Speaker 2: no breaks. Davis alleges that she was afraid to leave

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Speaker 2: the stage during this process, and that she actually eventually

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Speaker 2: soiled herself on stage.

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Speaker 3: So these are some really serious accusations. An important part

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Speaker 3: of this story is that these women no longer work

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Speaker 3: for Lizzo what happened to their employment at the.

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Speaker 2: End, So Williams and Davis both ended up getting fired.

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Speaker 2: Williams was told she was let go because of budget cuts.

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Speaker 2: On the other hand, Davis was fired after recording a

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Speaker 2: meeting with Lizzo, which she claimed to record to be

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Speaker 2: able to revise notes on her performance. The lawsuit alleges

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Speaker 2: that Lizo berated Davis for the secret recording when she

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Speaker 2: found out about it, and then subsequently fired her. Rodriguez

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Speaker 2: then claims to have spoken up in defense of Davis,

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Speaker 2: telling Lizo that she didn't like how she handled the situation.

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Speaker 2: Lizo then, and this is according to the lawsuit, allegedly

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Speaker 2: approached Rodriguez aggressively and had to be restrained. Rodriguez claims

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Speaker 2: she feared Lizzo intended to hit her. The lawsuit overall

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Speaker 2: argues that the work environment would shock the conscience of anyone.

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Speaker 3: These are some really serious allegations, and it's important to

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Speaker 3: remember that we are right at the beginning of what

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Speaker 3: could be a very long process. What happens from here.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we'll have to wait and see how this

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Speaker 2: case plays out. As you said, we're at the very beginning.

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Speaker 2: We don't know whether a settlement will be reached or

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Speaker 2: whether it will proceed to a civil trial. The lawsuit

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Speaker 2: doesn't specify the amount of financial compensation that's sought, so

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Speaker 2: that might come out, you know, in the weeks or

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Speaker 2: months to come. But one thing we do know, of course,

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Speaker 2: is that a lot of Lizo fans will be watching

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Speaker 2: this one closely, and I think that these allegations are

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Speaker 2: bound to shake things up for Lizzo, who has said

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Speaker 2: a number of times it's a huge pop star, regardless

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Speaker 2: of what the outcome will be.

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Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us on the Daily OS today and

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Speaker 3: thank you Shigatsu for your comment on yesterday's episode. You

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Speaker 3: said you love the episode and you requested we cover

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Speaker 3: Lizo today. Hopefully we've answered some of your questions. If

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Speaker 3: you have a story you'd like us to explain this week,

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Speaker 3: just leave it in the Spotify question box two. We'll

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Speaker 3: be back again tomorrow. Until then, have a great day.