Sex workers win employment rights in world first for Belgium

Belgian sex workers have gained the right to sick days, maternity pay and pension rights under the first law of its kind in the world.

- Jennifer Rankin

Legislators voted in May to give sex workers the same employment protections as any other employee, to clamp down on abuse and exploitation. The law, which went into force yesterday, ensures that sex workers have employment contracts and legal protection.

It is intended to end a grey zone created in 2022 when sex work was decriminalised in Belgium without conferring any protections on sex workers, including labour rights such as unemployment benefit or health insurance.