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Belgium has become the first country in the world to approve a labour law on employment contracts for sex workers.
Under the law, if a prostitute refuses a client more than 10 times over six months, a pimp can trigger an intervention by a government mediator but cannot sack the employee.
It also entitles the sex worker to health insurance, pensions, unemployment and family benefits, holidays and maternity leave.
“This law is a world first. I cannot stress enough how important this is,” Daan Bauwens, a spokesman for the UTSOPI, the union for sex workers in Belgium, said.
“With this model, Belgium is really demonstrating that it aims to protect sex workers, regardless of any moral judgements about the profession people may have,” he told The Brussels Times.
He added: “We hope that this can lead to a reversal of the recent trend of criminalising clients in Europe.
“We hope that other countries will copy this text, as they did on topics such as same-sex marriage, abortion, euthanasia and transgender rights.”
The law makes it legal to give prostitutes employment contracts, after Belgium became the first country in Europe to decriminalise self-employed sex work in 2022.
It bestows certain rights on the worker and conditions on their employer. These include the right to refuse a client or a sexual act, as well as the right to interrupt a sexual act at any time without fear of dismissal or punishment.
