2023-08-12 04:00:18
Reluctance is expressed by the horeca sector. The Minister of Labor Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS) nevertheless considers that this is the best solution.
Sex workers who have an employment contract will in principle be integrated into the joint catering committee. It is in any case the will of the Minister of Economy and Labor Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS). And this is one of the concrete consequences of the new sexual criminal law, which came into force on June 1, 2022, which decriminalizes prostitution.
As a reminder, this reform allows prostitutes to work legally as independent workers and to establish social rights. But, in some cases, these workers are linked to an employer by a disguised employment contract which designates them as masseuses, waitresses or hostesses. To put an end to this hypocrisy, the socialist minister tabled a bill at the end of June in the Council of Ministers which will allow them to have an employment contract in line with their real activity.
To do this, employers of sex workers will have to meet various conditions in order to be licensed. In addition to a clean criminal record, they will have to guarantee respect for the fundamental freedoms of sex workers, who can end a service and the activity at any time, and ensure in particular that they install an emergency button in each room where the services are performed.
Mixed reviews
Once this bill is adopted and employers have followed the approval procedure, a joint committee will have to be found for them. It is the one dedicated to the horeca that has been chosen by the firm Dermagne, which recognizes that opinions were mixed at the end of the first consultation. “The workers’ bench was rather favourable, but the employers’ bench was negative.”
It emerges from a sounding of the sector that it feels up against the wallwithout any answers being given to his concerns.
“Under the pretext of not stigmatizing them, they are integrated into a sector whose rules do not correspond to the activity.”
It is not a question of morality, but of very concrete pitfalls, assures Christophe Wambersie, secretary general of the Neutral Union for Independents (SNI). “A joint committee makes it possible to harmonize the conditions of workers in a given sector. But sex work has nothing to do with catering, which is just the environment in which this activity takes place. Under the pretext of not stigmatizing them, they are integrated into a sector whose rules do not correspond to the activity.
Flexibility
The firm Dermagne nevertheless considers that this is the most appropriate joint committee. Firstly because most sex workers are already there, even if it is under disguised contract. Then, the creation of a specific commission or inclusion in a smaller one, such as that for beauty care, could lead to a risk of stigmatization of all of these workers. Finally, the hotel and catering committee already has a certain flexibility due to night work and weekends.
“But that doesn’t mean that people have to have exactly the same working conditions as the hospitality industry. It will be up to the social partners to define function profiles and working conditions for this“, we specify at Pierre-Yves Dermagne.
“But it is precisely these practical arrangements that pose a problem!, protests David Debin, administrator at the Brussels Horeca Federation. The principle of wanting to bring sex workers out of hiding is very noble, we are of course in favor of it. But no one can throw the hot potato at us, even though it will be very complicated to set up legally and socially. Negotiations are already very difficult within the committee with different ways of working between a bar, a caterer, a hotel, a restaurant… The atypical profile of sex workers will be really very complicated to integrate.”
The decision is not yet final. As required by the specific procedure for the scope of joint committees, a notice will be published in the Belgian Official Gazette at the end of August. And stakeholders will have at least 30 days to comment.
The summary
- Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne tabled a bill at the end of June which will allow prostitutes to have an employment contract in line with their real activity.
- Once employers have gone through the approval procedure, contracted sex workers will be part of the horeca joint committee.
- This project raises concerns in the horeca sector which considers that there will be great difficulties in integrating these atypical profiles.
- For the firm Dermagne, this is the most appropriate solution because many sex workers are already part of this commission which already offers a lot of flexibility.
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