Beyond Decriminalization: Sex-work, Human Rights and a New ...

BEYOND DECRIMINALIZATION: Sex Work, Human Rights and a New Framework for Law Reformin proving that an injury did actually occur in the course of employment, particularly with respect tosexually transmitted diseases:A. That would be too hard, I would think. That – that would be too hard to – to –.Number one, the client would refuse to – he wouldn’t say he saw you. Right away,with any WCB thing, you have to have a witness. Who’s that, your john? Your john isgoing to run with his tail between his legs.- female street-level sex worker)A project participant supported the workers’ compensation scheme, but was concerned that it wouldbe too difficult to prove, for example, that a sexually transmitted disease was contracted on the job,rather than from a boyfriend while off the job:A. Um, in an ideal world, yes, but I, I don’t think it would be workable . . . they don’tknow what happened in that bedroom. And again, once the door’s closed, and, yes,maybe a client gave it to me. Which client? And, and if a client were pinpointed,he should be the one liable in any case for having given it to me. And his insuranceshould be the one that’s covering my costs, not workers’ comp. I mean, to me, it’s farmore likely that I slip on a tile in the bathroom because a client didn’t wipe up thefloor and I did the splits and I broke my kneecap. Now that’s, that’s something thatcould happen and almost happened about a week ago, and, and, that sort of, that’sthe kind of injury I can kind of see going to workers’ comp. and saying hey I can’twork because my knee’s in a cast for six weeks [laughs], and I wouldn’t mind somecompensation while I’m out. That, I can see happening far more likely, or, you knowthe headboard fell on my forehead and conked me [laughs]. That’s happened too.Because that’s the kind of work injury that I see, but no, I can’t see it being workableif it’s an STD related thing, because who gave it to me? . . . I don’t know. To me itdoesn’t seem like it would be a workable thing. It just doesn’t. Cause my boyfriendcould have given it to me.- female off-street out-call sex workerIt may be useful for sex workers seeking compensation for illnesses contracted on the job to demonstratethat they were not infected with the disease prior to the alleged date of infection. Ensuringproof in the event of such claims could lead to more pressure for legislated mandatory disease testingin the workplace. Similarly, depending on the circumstances of a particular claim, a client wouldlikely have to prove that he contracted a disease in a particular commercial sexual encounter, and notas the result of some other source of infection.Mandatory disease testingSome sex workers supported mandatory disease testing:Q. Okay. Now this is a hard one. What about testing?A. Every six months.Q. Should it be mandatory? Should it be optional?A. Mandatory. Every six months.- male street-level sex workersAgainst this view, many other workers opposed mandatory disease testing on several grounds: mandatorytesting erroneously reinforces the notion that sex workers are vectors of disease; in the case of arecent infection, it may be too early for a test to detect it, in which case mandatory testing may createa false sense of security, potentially leading to unsafe practices and reckless behaviour; mandatory119