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Belgium has adopted a new legislative initiative that gives sex workers the right to formal employment contracts, health insurance, pensions, paid maternity leave and sick days. This is the first law in the world to regulate the labour rights of sex workers, the BBC reports.
According to research, there are tens of millions of sex workers in the world. In Belgium, sex work was decriminalised in 2022, and in a number of countries, including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey, it is legal. However, granting labour rights and signing contracts was an unprecedented step.
Sophie, one of the sex workers living in Belgium, says: “It’s an opportunity for us to exist as human beings.” She recalls her difficult experience of working during her pregnancy: “I worked until the last week of my pregnancy. After the birth of my fifth child by caesarean section, I was told that I needed to stay in bed for six weeks. But I couldn’t afford it because I needed money.”
Sophie emphasises that her life would have been much easier if she had been entitled to paid maternity leave.
The law has been welcomed by human rights activists. Erin Kilbreed, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, called the move “radical” and “the best thing I’ve seen in the world so far”. She stressed that other countries should move in the same direction.
However, there are also critics who point out that sex work contributes to human trafficking, exploitation and violence, and that the new law will not prevent these problems. Julia Crumier, a volunteer with Isala, an organisation that helps sex workers in Belgium, believes that the move “normalises a profession that has always been inherently violent”.
