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Red lights in the red light district
When I was at school you weren’t allowed to wear brothel creepers.
You know, those funky shoes that were kind of cool a little while back (well, probably a long way back).
I should confess that (being a good boy at school) I don’t really know what brothel creepers are. Presumably they are the type of footwear that would be preferred if one wished to sneak around a house of ill repute undetected.
Nowadays, of course, the need to creep in brothels has been greatly reduced.
Prostitution is not only decriminalised – it is collectivised … and sanitised.
About a month ago, the Occupational Safety & Health Service proudly released a Guide to Occupational Health & Safety in the New Zealand Sex Industry.
The Guide follows the passage into law of the Prostitution Reform Act last year. That law means that the sex industry now operates under the same health and safety rules as any other New Zealand industry.
In the same way that there are similar guides to assist workers in other hazardous environments, this document prescribes standards of safety and behaviour which amount to legal obligations under the health and safety legislation.
In other words, a failure by a sex worker (or the employer of a sex worker) to adhere to these standards proposed in the Guide might amount to a breach of the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
The Guide acknowledges that its development was greatly assisted by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective – which provided “industry specific information and understanding of the sex industry”. (One has an image of a bespectacled, white coat clad health and safety inspector making notes from a whiteboard presentation given by an expert in the area).
A number of fundamental duties are placed upon people who operate brothels. At a practical level, the Guide requires operators to:
- make sure beds are in good repair;
- ensure that outfits worn by workers when seeing clients are comfortable, appropriate for the worker and do not affect posture if worn for long periods;
- ensure that the workplace – and access to it – is safe for workers (and, amongst other things, that there are plans for emergency evacuations);
- supply water based lubricants and massage oils which are non allergenic; and
- ensure that workers have adequate breaks between clients and shifts (to avoid stress and fatigue, of course).
At first blush, the application of some of these requirements (which are common in other industries) may seem strange in the context of this particular type of business. The Guide does, however, go on to provide a level of detail about each of these different areas which serves to remove what might seem as some of the otherwise unusual implications.
Here are a few examples.
There are express provisions about the occurrence of overuse disorders. Operators are encouraged to ensure that workers are given training in the safe use of equipment, particularly that used in bondage and discipline work, as well as training in correct massage techniques (both of which are recorded as offering the possibility of repetitive strain type injuries).
There are extensive provisions dealing with the appropriate use of condoms (which are one of several pieces of workplace equipment referred to under the label “Personal Protective Equipment”). The guide contains a comprehensive fact sheet outlining action which should be taken in the event of condom breakage or slippage (which delicately refers to the role to be played by the “insertive partner” and the “receptive partner”).
There are provisions concerning alcohol, drugs and smoking in the workplace. Perhaps most significantly – under a section titled “Psycho Social Factors” - there is a comprehensive provision dealing with security and safety from violence in the workplace (which one imagines might be particularly relevant to this industry).
Information is provided about sexual health education and “reproductive health”. Contact details are provided for different organisations which provide information and support to sex workers.
At first blush, the ordinary person’s reaction to guidelines such as this might be one of frivolity. After all, it is not every day that one reads a government publication which features a definition of the term “trick sex”.
On the other hand, however, one of the great dangers of this particular industry is that for so long as it remained unregulated, sex workers were exposed to any number of dangers. Those hazards arose not only in the form of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases – but also to unfortunate realities such as violence and drug use.
If these guidelines encourage nothing more than a small increase in awareness of those issues – and protection from them – they will be a resounding success for our society as a whole.
