Belgium Becomes First Country to Give Sex Workers Employment Contracts

Under the law, sex workers employed by an approved establishment receive health insurance, unemployment benefits, paid holidays, parental leave, sick pay and pension contributions. Just as significant are the workplace rights written into the contract: an employee may refuse any client, stop an act at any moment, and set conditions on how services are performed, with protections against dismissal for exercising those rights.

Employers face a licensing regime. Establishments must pass background checks, meet hygiene and safety standards, and comply with obligations designed to screen out coercion and exploitation. Advocacy organizations including Utsopi campaigned for the framework as a way to replace criminalization and informal arrangements with enforceable rights.

The law is not without gaps. Its protections attach to the employment relationship, so self-employed, independent and street-based workers, who make up much of the sector, remain outside the new contractual regime. Human-rights groups nonetheless describe the reform as a historic shift from stigma toward social security, and a reference point for decriminalization debates in the United States and elsewhere. Belgian lawmakers paired the labour measure with strengthened penalties targeting genuine sexual exploitation.