THEIR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
Women told, 'Work in brothel, or else'
German law forces out-of-work females to take sex jobs or lose unemployment
Posted: January 30, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
A provision in the German welfare system is forcing out-of-work women to chose
between taking jobs in the sex industry or losing their unemployment benefits.
Once one of the most generous systems in Europe, Germany's unemployment program
has been reformed to require those out of work to take jobs for which they are
qualified, or lose benefits. In the case of women, females below the age of 55
who have been out of work for a year or more must take any available job
offered.
The full legalization of prostitution two years ago â with brothel owners now paying
taxes and employee health insurance â has created an awkward situation at German job
centers where employers can access the official government database of those seeking
work, reports the London Telegraph.
One 25-year-old waitress, an unemployed information technology professional,
had indicated a willingness to work in a bar at night and had past experience
working in a cafe. A potential employer, finding her profile promising,
contacted the job center about hiring her. Only after the young woman called to
inquire about the job did she learn the employer was a brothel. When she
refused the position, she was threatened with cuts to her unemployment benefits.
Centers that do not penalize job seekers who refuse offered positions are
subject to lawsuits by the employers.
"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry,"
says Merchthild Garweg, a Hamburg lawyer. "The new regulations say that working in the sex
industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to
benefits."
Garweg notes that women who have past experience as telemarketers or call
service workers have been offered positions with telephone-sex services. New
laws permit sex-oriented employers to advertise in the job centers and provide
for the suing of job centers that refuse to accept their ads.
When the German government crafted the recent welfare reforms, brothels were
initially considered for exclusion, but they were believed too difficult to
distinguish from bars. Their inquiries for potential workers are treated no
differently than those from grocery stores or schools.
"Why shouldn't I look for employees through the job center when I pay my taxes just
like anybody else?" asked one central Berlin brothel owner who has been using the
local database to find prospective workers.
The German experience closely follows that of the Netherlands, according to the
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. Following the 2000 legalization of
prostitution by the Dutch and the registration of prostitutes, brothels began
using official job centers to find new employees.
Garwig believes pressure on job centers to meet employment targets is only
going to make the current situation worse.
"They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but
which don't count as prostitution," she says.
"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is
really nothing but the goodwill of the job centers to stop them from pushing women into
jobs they don't want to do."
Last year, the German federal government announced that it would be fining employers
that failed to hire trainees â a measure to be applied to brothels as well as
other employers. Brothels failing to hire one apprentice for every 15 employees will
be fined for failing to promote the sex industry.
Germany legalized prostitution in 2002 in the belief it would slow down the trafficking in women and reduce the role of organized crime in the profession. Instead, government is expanding the sex industry by guaranteeing a steady stream of new recruits, some willing and some not.
