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Safety tips for the oldest profession
Van Gogh cut off his ear for one, Mira Sorvino won an Oscar for portraying one, and now in New Zealand it is not necessarily illegal to be one.
It doesn't seem that long ago that prostitution was a subject firmly removed from discussion at the dinner table. Though I am sure that "ladies of the night" existed, their profession - and the brothels that went along with it - were hushed secrets which were the subject of schoolboy jokes and local apocryphal.
How things have changed.
A matter of a few short weeks ago, following an extremely close vote in the House (appropriately in the dead of night) our Parliament resolved to decriminalise the oldest profession.
It is a significant social change which many supporters proclaimed will transform an industry from the half light of social rejection into the well-lit protection of legislative recognition.
That recognition was not long in coming.
Only a matter of days after the passing of this historical legislation, a representative from the Department of Labour's Occupational Safety and Health Division announced that thought would be given to the development of health and safety guidelines for sex workers.
What a delightful statement of our times : hot on the heels of social change come the regulators, eager to please with their desire to ensure safety for us all.
Our first reaction to this suggestion may be one of astonishment. How can one regulate the prostitution industry to render it safe?
For a start, the matter is simply one of application of legislation: prostitutes are workers whose jobs fall within the scope of New Zealand's health and safety legislation. Further, (and perhaps to even more astonishment) the issue is not novel : other countries have already regulated sex workers to ensure that their profession complies with health and safety legislation.
So what can we expect from our health and safety inspectorate over the coming months? We may get some indication from a careful consideration of New South Wales' "Health and Safety Guidelines for Brothels" (a publication which I note is curiously accompanied by what appears to be the local inspectorate's slogan: "We are watching out for you" - perhaps not the ideal message to send to patrons of such establishments).
By and large, these Australian Guidelines are an intuitive application of well established health and safety provisions to the sex industry. The following are some examples:
- An employer must take reasonable steps to safeguard its employees from hazards that may arise in the workplace. In the case of sex workers, one of the more obvious hazards is exposure to sexually transmitted infections. The Australian Guidelines provide an indication of the types of lighting and inspection areas which should be provided to enable workers to convince themselves (prior to commencing "work") that they are not exposing themselves to an obvious risk of infection.
- An employer has a general obligation to provide safety equipment to its employees sufficient to provide reasonable protection from recognised hazards. In the case of the sex industry, this obligation rather obviously requires the employer to ensure that it provides employees with access to condoms and gloves - and also to provide facilities for washing and cleaning equipment.
- An employer must ensure that its premises are kept clean and tidy. For sex workers, this obligation translates into a requirement to ensure that linen is provided fresh for each new client, and that showers, baths and toilets are appropriately cleaned and disinfected. There are particular tips for the disinfection of spa pools.
- Finally, it is well recognised that employers should protect their employees from occupational overuse syndrome. The Australian Guidelines suggest that repetitive activities in the sex industry are known to present the risk of occupational overuse in the form of back pain and wrist injury (the mind boggles). Suggestions are provided as to the steps which can be taken to minimise the risk of such maladies.
Many of these guidelines may provoke something of a snigger - or may even seem downright absurd. The reality is, however, that where an industry is illegal, it is left to self regulation. By decriminalising prostitution, some of the ill effects of the sex industry are now exposed to what might be interpreted as mundane regulation.
This new situation might be best tested in a case where, for example, an employer required a sex worker to engage in sexual activity without the use of condoms. Where such a despicable act may have formerly gone unpunished (or indeed completely unspoken) it may now form the basis of a health and safety prosecution.
For that - past all of the inevitable sniggers and raised eyebrows - we have something about which to be thankful.
