Belgium made headlines on Sunday by becoming the first nation globally to permit sex workers to enter into formal employment contracts, thereby ensuring their entitlement to sick leave, maternity benefits, and pensions.
The new legislation also secures essential rights for sex workers, including the power to decline clients, determine the terms of service, and terminate an act at any point.
Lawmakers approved the legislation in May, but it became effective on Sunday.
In Belgium, offering or purchasing sexual services was already legal, with laws primarily aimed at brothels and third parties facilitating sex work, such as landlords, bankers, and drivers, often labelling them as “pimps.”
In 2022, Belgian lawmakers decided to decriminalise sex work and refine the definition of pimping to prevent sex workers from encountering difficulties in finding bankers, insurers, drivers, or accountants.
The recent law advances further by providing sex workers with labour rights and protections equivalent to those enjoyed by other professions. This includes access to pensions, unemployment benefits, health insurance, family allowances, and annual and maternity leave.
Employers are now mandated to secure authorisation and fulfil background requirements, which include having no past convictions for sexual assault, human trafficking, or fraud. They must also maintain clean and sanitary premises equipped with a panic button and are forbidden from dismissing an employee who declines a client or a particular act.
These reforms were a result of years of advocacy in Belgium. The sex worker union, which has spearheaded the initiative, noted that previously, workers often felt obligated to continue working well into their pregnancies or beyond retirement age.
These rights are exclusively available to sex workers who formalise employment contracts, excluding those who are self-employed. Individuals involved in pornography or striptease are also not encompassed by the new law.
In the United States, Nevada is the only state that permits brothels, with prostitution outside those establishments remaining illegal. Recently, New York and California took steps to decriminalise loitering to engage in sex work. Last year, Maine lifted penalties for those selling sexual services but maintained legal repercussions for those purchasing such services.
