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Sex workers in Belgium have gained the right to health insurance, maternity leave, sick pay and other employment benefits under a new law that is the first of its kind in the world. Since Sunday, December 1, sex workers can work under full employee status.
In 2022, sex work was legalized in Belgium through the new sexual criminal law and sex workers can become self-employed. Now comes the labor law. "Sex workers now have access to social security: pensions, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual leave, maternity leave... Until now, there was no status, and therefore no protection," Koen Bouwens, director of the sex workers' rights group Otsupi, was quoted by the Brussels media as saying.
The law must ensure that sex workers can do their work in safe conditions. There will be an emergency button in every room used for sex work. Sex workers working on the site can use a mobile alert button. The new law also includes freedoms for sex workers. For example, they can refuse a client or decide not to perform certain sexual acts or stop them. Refusal cannot lead to dismissal. Whether this will remove sex workers from illegal work is not entirely clear, says Bauwens. "A large percentage of sex workers are illegal immigrants. Without valid residence papers, they cannot enter into an employment contract. (KB)
According to a report by CBS News, the new legislation will allow sex workers to enter into employment contracts and benefit from the same rights and legal protections as any other employee, which also includes pension, unemployment benefits and annual leave.

Consensual prostitution has already been decriminalized in the European country but until now it has existed in a legal gray area.

"I am a very proud Belgian sex worker now," an author and sex worker known online as Mel Melicious tells her Instagram followers in a video. "This is a very important step for us as sex workers. “And [employers] can’t force you to do something you don’t want to do,” she adds.
Sex Workers in Belgium
The new law doesn’t apply to self-employed sex workers, but it will bar employers with a history of crimes, such as human trafficking or abuse, from working in the industry. Under the law, they will also have to provide a safe work environment equipped with alarm buttons. Sex workers will also be able to refuse a client or a sexual act without fear of being fired or punished for doing so.

“We can say it’s the first day of a new era,” Quentin Deltour, who led the campaign for the law, told CBS News.

Deltour is part of Espace P, an advocacy group that helped draft the legislation. For them, the law is a small victory in their fight to protect sex workers from abuse.

“We’ve realized that there is a ‘lesser status’ of a citizen when you don’t have the social rights associated with your professional activity,” Deltour says. His advocacy group sees the law as a shift Important in the perspective towards this type of work.

"The previous mentality was that sex work is not compatible with the dignity of women. Now we can stop this moral thinking. Sex work is work for some people," he told CBS News.

However, the Belgian Union of Sex Workers (UTSOPI) says this "historic" move is not a way to normalize the profession. For them, giving sex workers the same rights as other employees does not mean that their work is the same as anyone else's.

Dan Bauwens, policy and advocacy officer, told CBS News that many of those who choose to engage in sex work do so because of economic hardship, discrimination, inequality or lack of better opportunities.

"We don't glamorize anything," Bauwens said. "If people make this choice because they are going through a hard time, we are not going to punish them a second time by depriving them of the basic rights that we grant to everyone."