Belgium grants labour rights to sex workers
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Hello, I'm Katya Adler. From the BBC World Service, this is The Global Story. Belgium has become the first country in the world to offer employment contracts to sex workers.

They'll now be entitled to health insurance, pensions and maternity leave... ...like most other employees For me it's just like any other job... ...and we need to be protected from the bad employers Worldwide there are thought to be tens of millions of people... ...working in the sex industry But it's largely unregulated, often illegal, exploitative... ...and sometimes very dangerous work This new law is normalising sex work...

and it is dangerous. It has a potential for very catastrophic outcomes. Most alarmingly, this validates exploiters as authentic business people. The new Belgian law is aimed at addressing some of the risks, but does it really protect sex workers? And can or should sex work be treated the same as any other job?

With me today is Sofia Betydza, the BBC's gender and identity correspondent. Hi, Sofia.

Hi, Katja. You know Belgium well. We worked together in Brussels for many years. Yeah, that was 10 years ago. No, don't say that. Don't say that. It was yesterday. It was yesterday. 10 years ago, I was 24. You're now the BBC's gender and identity correspondent based in the UK, but you travel for your job. What is a gender and identity correspondent? Well, that's a really good question because it's not that easy to explain. So basically, I look at

issues around gender identity, which is someone's sense of their gender, which, as we know, can be different from the sex that they were assigned at birth. It can be men, trans, woman, non-binary. But I also look at things that happen to a person

or a group of people because of their gender. And, you know, obviously sex work is something predominantly done by women. And as you said, I used to be based in Belgium. And when I sort of heard about this law that was coming, I thought it would be really interesting to look at it and to see if it could actually help women in Belgium and in other countries.

I mean, Belgium and neighboring Netherlands are seen as being quite liberal in social attitudes anyway, and towards sex work in general. Before we get started on our episode, Sophia, I just want to warn our listeners, and particularly those who might have children with them, that

We will, because of the subject we're focusing on, we will be mentioning sex acts and sexual violence in our conversation. So, Sophia, let's have a look at this new Belgian law. What is new about it? Because Belgium had already decriminalized sex work, hadn't it? Yeah.

Yeah, so they decriminalised sex work in 2022 and Belgium became the first country in Europe to do so. But this sort of takes that a step further. It's a law that gives labour rights to sex workers. So they will be able to enter official contracts with their employers and they'll also be entitled to health insurance benefits.

pensions, maternity leave, days off, sick days. And these are all benefits that they never had. And so the idea is treating sex work like any other job. And, you know, it is an unprecedented experience.

effort to try and regulate the sex industry. You point out in your reporting, it's one of the oldest professions, if you like, but about how vulnerable they feel and how they want to be protected better for a long time. I seem to remember protests about this during COVID-19, during the pandemic. What was going on then? Has that triggered the new law? That's a really good point because a lot of the sex workers I spoke to have said that the pandemic has

was a tipping point for them because, you know, when the pandemic happened, people who couldn't work, they got help from the state in Belgium, like in many other countries.

But sex workers got absolutely no support because their job was illegal. And so this led to months and months of protests with sex workers demanding that the job be made legal. And I spoke to Victoria, who is the president of the Belgian Union of Sex Workers. And she said that all of a sudden, you know, they were being invited on national television to make their case. They were, you know, protesting every week, protesting.

And she really feels that that was a moment when society in Belgium suddenly realised that there are a lot of people in this industry. They also want rights. They even have, you know, a political agenda. I had to work in unsafe conditions.

And I had no choice of what kind of clients I could accept. And I wanted to change that. I really wanted for everyone who came after me a better working life. If you choose sex work. How does the new law define sex workers, though? Who does it apply to?

The law doesn't apply to everybody. It only applies to people who sign an employment contract for sex work. So anybody who is self-employed or who works online or only funds, you know, the law doesn't apply to them. They're like seen as freelancers in a way.

it only covers sex work when it comes to physical contact. So, for example, webcam models are not covered. It also won't apply to students. I think the idea is that they don't want to encourage people to enter this profession because they'll have all these employment benefits. What about employers of sex workers? I mean, the word we often hear is pimps. That conjures up a

picture of an abusive often male on the streets who have sex workers working under him again I'm talking about stereotypes it doesn't have to be a man and again the sex worker themselves there are men involved it's not just about women how are the employers affected by this law so

They will be able to operate legally for the first time. They'll have to follow a set of very strict rules. You know, they need to have a permit and anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to operate. We spoke to two employers in Belgium, Chris and Alexandra, who are a married couple who run an erotic massage parlour in northern Belgium. And they were really happy about the law. Hello. Hi.

Hi, how are you? Good, fine, thank you and you? Good, good, nice to see you. Likewise. So this is your place? Yes, do you want to like a tour? Yeah, I'd love a tour. They say that, you know, there are people in this industry that want to do this job the right way. You know, they employ 15 sex workers, they pride themselves on treating them really well, of paying them well, of course that's what they say.

And until now, they had been operating in a legal grey zone. For example, they really want to expand their business to grow. But it's been really hard because, of course, what they do wasn't legal. What does that mean? For example, if they can't get a loan at a bank or they can't even get fire insurance, obviously that makes it hard for them to expand as business people. And so they think this new law will give them a legal status and they're very happy with it.

But what I thought was really interesting is that they also admit that a lot of businesses will have to shut down because a lot of employers do have a criminal record. Me and my wife, we want to go forward like any business, good business goes.

but everybody holds us back. Why? If I pay every year my taxes, I'm good. I hope the new law will change that. And also, this new law involves more cost on behalf of the employer, like paying national insurance or workers' insurance and maternity leave, for example, or sick pay. Definitely, and that's why not everyone is happy with the new law. So the expectation is that

employers will have to pay contributions to the Belgian social security system. And some of them already do, by the way. They already pay into that social security system. But the only difference is that they hire sex workers as waitresses or massage therapists.

So, you know, they already pay taxes. So the key change here will be that, you know, will be for all those people who operate under the radar, who only pay salaries in cash. You know, the hope is that this law will work.

force them to change that. I thought it was really interesting. And from your reporting, obviously, when this law itself is hugely interesting in Belgium and the impact it might have on other countries as well, but it can sound very theoretical. You went out to brothels, you went out to talk to people working in the sex industry now and people who have left it for your reporting. I found that couple that you're referring to,

who run this erotic massage parlor, very interesting because when you go there, it looks like a sort of low budget hotel really, doesn't it? They've got the bar downstairs, they've got a menu, but the menu in this case is for what their employees are offering clients. Or it could be sort of like a beauty parlor almost. They're trying to give this impression of

Exactly. And they take pride in what they do. I mean, it wasn't what I was expecting at all when we set up the interview. And to be honest with you, when we visited the massage parlor, it was amazing.

11.30am on a Monday and I thought it would be dead but it was fully booked and the phone was ringing off the hook and that really surprised me so I mean there is definitely a demand there. We're going to get on to what employees in the sex industry think about this new law in just a second but being the global story what is the global perspective on this if we compare Belgium with its new law to other countries?

So it really varies. The way that the profession is regulated globally is, it's really inconsistent. So you've got countries where sex work is legal, like the Netherlands, Germany, several countries in Latin America. And, you know, sex work is treated as a legitimate profession, but it's also strictly regulated. So there are sort of extra regulations in place for sex workers.

Then you've got countries where sex work is decriminalized like Belgium and New Zealand. And what that means is that selling, buying, organizing and soliciting sex are legal. And that's, you know, in practice, it means that there is more freedom for sex workers, but also for employers to operate in those countries.

And then you've got countries where the trade is illegal, but it's very much tolerated. And a good example of that would be Thailand, where, you know, sex work is illegal, but there's a thriving industry there. And then you've got sort of the most prevalent approach worldwide is known as abolitionism. And that's the case in France, in Israel, in Canada, everywhere.

And that means that selling and buying sex is legal, but brothels or any form of organization like pimping, for example, is prohibited. And the idea is to try and prevent exploitation. And then finally, there are countries where sex work is completely illegal across the board, like Russia, Pakistan, South Africa. And so I think, you know, the way that

The industry is regulated, as I said, is inconsistent. And I think that it just shows just how divisive this issue is. So we've looked at Belgium's new sex worker employment law. What do sex workers make of it? And do they feel better protected now from exploitation or abuse?

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This is The Global Story. We bring you one big international story in detail five days a week. Follow or subscribe wherever you listen. So now looking at the new law, as we said, particularly around the shutdown, COVID-19 shutdown, when...

Physical contact was banned by the government here, like in many governments around the world. We saw those protests by sex workers wanting equal labor rights. So now that there is this new law in Belgium, are people happy?

Most sex workers I spoke to in Belgium are really happy about the law. You know, they said that it couldn't come soon enough. They say that sex work is work and it should be treated as such. For example, I spoke to a 29-year-old woman

escort called Mel in Belgium. And, you know, she's somebody who loves her job, is very proud of what she does. I like my job a lot. I love that I am the boss of my own body. For me, that's a very empowering thing. Do you make good money? I'm not complaining. But she said that when she started doing this, she was 23, she was very young. And

And she was pressured to do some things she definitely did not want to do. But there was sort of that kind of blackmail, that emotional blackmail from her employers. And so she, for example, said that,

If the law had been in place at the time, she could have gone to her employer and said, you are violating these terms in my contract and this is not how you should treat me. I want people who work in the industry now and who will in the future that they are aware that these are their rights. I think it's important. One thing that I'm interested in, because again, one of the people you spoke to in the massage parlour used to be a nurse.

and made a point about being a mum and needing to be more flexible in their hours. There's also the issue of maternity leave. Did parenthood come up quite a lot when you were talking to the sex workers, the practicalities and why they need protection?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of sex workers do what they do to support their families. But I mean, juggling work and having a family is difficult. And this job is very, very difficult. Think about it's physical work, it's very unsociable hours. And I spoke to a sex worker in Belgium, Sophie, who has five children. And she said to me she had to work while she was nine months pregnant, and

up until like one week before giving birth and you know when she had her fifth child for example she had to have a c-section and she was told she needed bed rest for six weeks but you know that wasn't an option because she needed money so she went back into work just after about a week and so she was saying to me that you know something like maternity leave

would have made her life so much easier. If somebody who works at a store can get maternity leave, why not somebody who works as a sex worker? I think it's even more important to have that for sex workers because it's a body work that we do. So we use...

different parts of our body for this job. So, you know, when you have been pregnant and you just gave birth, I don't think it's possible to start working as fast as somebody who doesn't use these body parts. And Sophia, one of your interviewees, Sophie, she used to be a nurse. She's now a sex worker. She was already before the introduction of the new law.

She likes the new law, right? But also you said, would you ever go back to being a nurse? What did she say to you and why? She didn't even flinch and she said never. She said the shifts were really tough. The money was not good. But it's interesting because other sex workers I interviewed used to be nurses. And I thought that was really interesting because for some of them, there is an element of wanting to

take care of people, wanting to help people. And so I thought that was quite interesting. And when it comes to Sophie, she said she'd never go back because now as a massage therapist slash sex worker, she makes...

I mean, she told me how much she makes. She makes a lot of money. She has three kids. She said that they can now go on holiday. She can give them lots of presents. They can do things as a family that she never dreamt she would have been able to afford. And so there's no way that she'll ever go back to being a nurse. I thought that was fascinating that for some people, this job makes them feel empowered. And when you say that, Sofia, some people, there are the others, right?

There are the others who often work in the shadows, many of whom possibly wouldn't be allowed by their employers. You know, if we give that sort of very neutral name to pimps who can be extremely abusive to talk to you or to me or to journalists. And that's why there are a lot of people who hate this new law here in Belgium and elsewhere and say you are legalizing exploitation.

I think that's one of the biggest criticisms of the law, that you are, as you said, normalising exploitation. A lot of people, including feminist groups, see sex work as exploitative work

as something that reinforces stereotypes about women being treated as sex objects and that there is no way that this profession can ever be safe or dignified. And what those people have said to me is that

This law is actually dangerous because it normalises a profession that is just violent at its very core. And just to give you an example, one of the things that the new law brings is that each room where sexual services take place must be equipped with an alarm button that will connect a sex worker with their reference person. And so the criticism that I heard previously

about that from somebody that works in an NGO, Julia works in an NGO that helps sex workers, is in what kind of job, normal job, would you ever need sex?

a panic button. And what she said to me is that, you know, this is not the oldest profession in the world. It's the oldest exploitation in the world. I was fascinated in your reporting, Sophia, by one of the women you spoke to, Andrea, who used to be a sex worker herself and then opened a brothel herself, she says, with the best of intentions and then shut it and opposes this law. Tell us about Andrea.

So Andrea used to be a sex worker in Canada and she then became a madam. So she opened a brothel and she said to me that she had sex with over 4,000 men and not even once that made her feel empowered or dignified. And when she opened the brothel, she really wanted to make it safe. She wanted to help. She said she had the best intentions, but she quickly realised that

that it was impossible and she was just sanctioning abuse of women and she later apologised to them and she said that ultimately this law in Belgium even if well-intentioned

It can't. It just can't protect women from being abused because at the end of the day, it's just one woman in a private room with a man. And so there's only so much you can control. In my mind, I thought that I could make it safe. And I realised very, very soon that I was not helping women. I had built a space that continued their abuse and there was nothing I could do to protect them. And I think that that's what's happening in Belgium. There's this belief that we can make it safe with just a little bit tweaking of rules

the stipulations or the laws. I don't think that there is any way to make a system of abuse safe for anyone in it. I spoke to Julia Crumier, who is a volunteer with an NGO in Belgium that helps sex workers on the streets.

And what she said is that most of the women that she helps are from a migrant background. They're poor and they don't have a choice. So many of them, for example, live in a hotel or a hostel and every night they go out in the street to try and make money because otherwise they won't be able to pay for their accommodation for the following night.

And she says that for her, that's the reality of sex work. The women that we meet, they tell us that they want to live, that they want to exit prostitution, that they want to have alternatives. What we hear the most is, "I want a normal job." When they say, "I want a normal job," it's not about labour rights.

It's about not being outside in freezing weather, meeting strangers that you don't know, being victims of violence. I think it's not because you changed the law that the activity is not violent. It's a brand new law.

How will it work in practice? How will it be policed? That's the key, isn't it? How will it be implemented? So if we go into the law in a bit more detail, it's based on five new rights that sex workers get. And those are rights to refuse a client, to refuse a sexual act, the right to interrupt any sexual act at any time, and also the right to perform those acts in whatever way they wish.

And the way that it works in practice is that if a sex worker invokes any of those rights, she is legally protected from being fired or protected from retaliation by the employer.

What is quite controversial, to me at least, is that if the sex worker invokes these rights, the rights to refuse more than 10 times in a six-month period, then the employer can seek...

a government intervention. So somebody from the government comes in like a mediation service and they will assess the situation and see if there's anything wrong with the working conditions. And obviously, how do you do that? Something like this has never been done before. So I think it's really too soon to tell how this will be implemented and if it will actually work. I find this hard to

to imagine a panic button, okay, who comes in to help the sex worker if they need it? Who ensures that prosecutions are made if sex workers feel their rights under this new law aren't respected? I mean, I'm thinking of, you're a native Italian, Sofia. Italy is so well known for years now having extremely sophisticated laws that protect women

rights and protect women against violence. But sadly, judges in Italy haven't always raced to

to implement these laws. So it's not just about what's on paper, if I put it in that old-fashioned way, but whether these laws are respected, whether law enforcement respects it. You speak to that sex worker who was raped, who made a complaint by the police, and the police basically couldn't care less and dismissed her because of the nature of her job. And I think...

That won't change overnight. The government passed this new law, but they haven't committed that they will put in loads of extra resources to make it work. I think also the argument in favour of the law is that it's a step in the right direction. And even though this is an industry where there is a lot of abuse and there is a lot of exploitation, it happens. It happens in every country in the world, even when it's strictly prohibited.

And even if this is seen by so many people as an undesirable profession, those people still need basic labour rights. And so this is an attempt to try and support them. And I do wonder whether it will also change social attitudes a bit in that sex workers, for whatever reason, they find themselves doing that job.

say loud and clearly, we are human beings and we deserve respect? If I'm completely honest, I don't think that's going to happen soon. I mean, attitudes towards sex work have always been overall quite negative, right? Many sex workers keep their job a secret because of the stigma that comes with it. And, you know, here in Great Britain, for example, where sex work is legal, a recent poll showed that

Many people wouldn't even feel comfortable being friends with a sex worker. And I think many people still see it as the ultimate undesirable profession, you know, a job where you sell your own body. It still feels like they live at the margins of society. And I think that's why this new law means so much to a lot of people that I spoke to, because as you said, Katia, it's a chance for them to be treated with respect and to exist as people.

people. Thank you so much for talking to us, Sophia. Thanks, Cassia. Thanks for having me. And thanks so much to you for listening. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at theglobalstoryatbbc.com or send us a message or voice note on WhatsApp. Our number is plus 44 330 123 9480. And you can find all those details in our show notes. We're

Wherever you're listening in the world, this has been The Global Story. Thanks for having us in your headphones. Goodbye.

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