Sex workers in Belgium now have maternity leave and sick pay in world first for employment rights

By Anna Cooban, CNN

London (CNN) — Sex workers in Belgium are now entitled to formal employment contracts, which include sick pay and maternity leave, under a landmark law that went into effect Sunday.

Under the law, which Belgian lawmakers passed in May, sex workers signing such a contract also become entitled to a raft of other rights and protections that normally apply to workers employed in other industries, such as health insurance and unemployment benefits.

“This is a world first in the sense that it is the first comprehensive legislative framework that grants sex workers equal rights (with other employees) and protects them from risks inherent to the (job),” Daan Bauwens, director of the Belgian Union of Sex Workers, told CNN.

Sex workers signing a formal employment contract now have “every kind of social protection” granted to the majority of employees in Belgium, according to Quentin Deltour, public relations manager at Espace P, a group advocating for sex workers’ rights in Belgium, which helped draft the law.

Under the legislation, sex workers also have the right to refuse to provide services to a client or perform a specific sexual act, and to stop any activity at any time.

The new law requires the employers of sex workers to obtain a license from the government, Deltour told CNN. Licenses are only granted if the prospective employer meets certain criteria, including having no previous convictions for rape or human trafficking.

The law also imposes obligations on sex workers’ employers, requiring them to provide condoms, clean bed linen and an emergency alarm button in workers’ rooms, among other duties.

Previously, said Deltour, many sex workers signed contracts with their employers, or pimps, but these documents “had zero value” because working as a pimp was illegal.

These contracts were as legally valid as those facilitating the delivery of illegal drugs, he explained. If a person signs a contract agreeing to deliver “one kilogram of cocaine every week” and fails to do so, they cannot be legally penalized for flouting that contract. “The judge is going to say, ‘No, this contract has no value,’” Deltour said.

Decriminalization

Sex workers globally face widespread discrimination, violence and other violations of their human rights.

While a handful of countries have legalized sex work — such as Germany and the Netherlands — in the vast majority of other nations it remains illegal to either buy or sell sex, or both, according to the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, an international association of sex worker groups.

The new law in Belgium comes two years after the country decriminalized sex work and overturned laws that prohibited third parties, such as landlords and accountants, from providing their services to sex workers.

These laws made it “impossible to perform the job in a normal and safe way,” according to the Belgian Union of Sex Workers. “Employers were also criminalized, making it impossible to work legally in a brothel.”

Decriminalization in Belgium “removed any sort of criminal penalty on either the buyer or the seller” of sex, Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a US-based non-profit, told CNN. That was a crucial step in protecting sex workers from violence, for example, but didn’t give them access to social security.

“(Decriminalization) brings you to a point where you’re allowed to live above ground without fear of going to prison, but that is a low bar,” she said. “Sex workers deserve the same rights and freedoms as all workers, and this law is a world first moving us in that direction.”

The new law, however, doesn’t cover all types of sex workers. For example, it excludes those who work independently, online or in pornographic films, said Deltour.

“This is a weakness,” he said. “(But) at least it is a first step, the door is open… we are in the door and now we are going to fight for the others’ rights.”

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