About harassment, yes of course, winning such cases are hard enough without the accusation being that one ‘asked for it’ by working in the sex industry. The question that always comes up, though, is whether new, special, irritating, unsubtle, unfair laws need to be drawn up to cover sex jobs as though they were inherently different always, to everyone.

As someone who is currently unemployed in the UK, i think I can answer some of the points here.

Firstly, escort agencies are legal inasmuch as they provide a companion for a public event - literally just an escort service, as opposed to a euphemism for callgirl services. In the UK, if any prostitution happens, then that is not provided by the agency, but would be negotiated between the individual escort and her (or his) client. If that happens, then it would be illegal, but I think people turn a blind eye.

Secondly, if a person is unemployed in the UK, in order to continue receiving benefits (i.e. “Job Seekers Allowance”, and any other benefits dependent upon that, e.g. housing benefit), a person must apply for any job that he or she is able to do. However, adult entertainment positions are exempt from this, and on any such advert in the Jobcentre, it is clearly displayed that you do not have to apply for them. Personally, being quite open about sex and sexuality, I have tended to apply for those for which I’m qualified (by physique, skills and temperament) to do (these have included an attendant at a gay massage parlour and shop assistant at a kinky sex shop).

Finally, yes the regulations against sexual harassment do cover sex work establishments, but in general I think that there is protection from public attitudes towards sex work: i.e. “what did you expect if you go to work at such places?” - meaning that getting any kind of court decision in your favour would be hard.

I think the consultation has to be seen in the light of general UK Government moves against the sex industry. Deputy PM Harriet Harman has been actively campaigning to get newspapers to drop ads for escort services in their columns, and the Newspaper Society has come out with a code of practice against these adverts after Government pressure. At the same time, the Government is carrying ads for vacancies in the JobCentres through the Ann Summers ruling.

This is all supposedly to combat trafficking. Its actual effect is, of course, if anything the reverse: it reduces the inflow of voluntary escorts and therefore improves the market for those supplying involuntary escorts.

S

and in the special edition called the same http://www.nodo50.org/Laura_Agustin/sex-tourism-stripping-rentboys-brothels-courtesans-pornography-escorts-and-solidarity-what-more-could-you-ask

But my question for you here is more specific. I say in the post that the jobs advertised are in legal sectors. In the UK escort agencies are not legal. How is it then that they can advertise in Jobcentres? This particular area is not grey, as I understand the law. Tolerated, but not grey.

What do you think?

The only time when I can see law intervening in such adverts is the deeply theoretical situation in which the adverts were explicit. In such situations you could argue they are obscene. Beyond that I don’t see any role for law here. If anything, in the current recession people may become a little more open minded about such activities.