Belgian sex workers will now have the right to sick days, maternity leave and pension rights under a new law that came into effect on Sunday (December 1). This will bring sex workers in Belgium on a par with all other employees in the European nation and ensure that they are neither exploited nor sacked for refusing sexual partners. Sex work was decriminalised in Belguim in 2022.
Sex workers were forced to work right after pregnancy. They were raped, assaulted or abused. But now, after the law came into effect on December 1, sex workers will have the same benefits as any other employee in Belgium, according to The Guardian. The law also empowers sex workers with a panic button.
However, several organisations and feminist activists have criticised the law, saying it “normalises a profession that is always violent at its core”.
Belgian lawmakers had in May voted in favour of the law to give sex workers employment benefits enjoyed by others. The demand for this law started in 2022, when sex work was decriminalised in Belgium.
Belgium is one of the few nations to have decriminalised prostitution. Others are New Zealand, the Netherlands and Nevada state in the US and some parts of Australia.
The Belgian law now asks employers to be of “good character” and with a business residence in Belgium. The residence for sex work will also have to ensure panic buttons, clean linens, showers and condoms.
The panic button will connect the sex worker with their reference person. The pimps will also be under the ambit of law in Belgium. Anyone convicted of a serious crime will not be able to employ a sex worker.
“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch told the BBC. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.”
The safeguards do not, however, include homeworking, striptease and pornography.
According to the Belgian Union of Sex Workers, the law is “a huge step forward, ending legal discrimination against sex workers”. But it also expressed concerns about how the rules could be “instrumentalised” to reduce sex work.
‘SEX WITH CLIENTS ONE WEEK BEFORE GIVING BIRTH’
The life of sex workers was difficult before this law was passed.
Victoria, who was at the forefront of the 2022 protests to bring the law, was raped by a client who had become obsessed with her.
She went to the police station to file a complaint and met with a female police officer.
“She told me sex workers can’t be raped. She made me feel it was my fault, because I did that job,” Victoria told the BBC.
“If there is no law and your job is illegal, there are no protocols to help you. This law gives people the tools to make us safer.”
Sophie had to have sex with her clients just one week before giving birth.
“I had to work while I was nine months pregnant,” Sophie, a sex worker in Belgium told the BBC. “I was having sex with clients one week before giving birth.”
By the time she had her fifth child, she was advised to do bed rest for six weeks. But she said that was not an option for her.
“I couldn’t afford to stop because I needed the money.”
For Mel, another sex worker, the choice was between disease or making no money.
She had to give oral sex to a client without a condom when sexually transmitted infection (STI) was spreading across her brothel. “My choice was either to spread the disease, or make no money.”
“I could have pointed the finger at my madam [employer] and said: ‘You’re violating these terms and this is how you should treat me.’ I would have been legally protected.”’
But she could not.
‘I HAVE A FUTURE NOW’, SAYS BELGIAN SEX WORKER
This law comes as a relief for many, but some in Belgium remain concerned about how the law would be used.
“It is dangerous because it normalises a profession that is always violent at its core,” Julia Crumière, a volunteer with Isala — an NGO that helps sex workers in Belgium, told the BBC.
“We already see certain municipalities hiding behind the words ‘safety’ and ‘hygiene’ to promulgate very strict local regulations that make sex work almost impossible on their territory,” said the Belgian Union of Sex Workers.
Feminist organisations are also against this law.
When the bill was put forward in 2023, the Council of Francophone Women of Belgium said it would be “catastrophic” for young girls and victims of trafficking. “To assume that prostitution exists and that we must protect workers is to accept this sexist violence and not to fight it,” said the head of the organisation.
But the law will also offer help to many.
“If there is no law and your job is illegal, there are no protocols to help you. This law gives people the tools to make us safer,” said Victoria, an ex-sex worker.
“I am very proud that Belgium is so far ahead,” said Mel, a sex worker. “I have a future now.”
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