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

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETYStrikes and picketingPart 5 of the LRC sets the rules for picketing and strikes. Some project participants said that theywould be willing to participate in picketing and strike if they were part of a union:138A. So would those strategies be useful to sex workers, striking and picketing?A. Yeah.A. Oh sure. Well if there is a reason for something happening, like somebody’s, like youwanna open up a house and it’s a unionized house of workers and next door they saywell no we don’t want this house to open well then you have to picket and strike tokeep it open. Yeah, that would be y’know.- female street-level sex workersHowever, one out-call sex worker argued that, in order for a sex worker union to be successfulpicketing and striking, it would have to be in a workplace setting, like that of a massage parlour,where a group of employees work at one location waiting for business to come through the door.Section 4: Complaints and grievancesIn order to improve working conditions in the sex industry, employment standards should becreated along with a mechanism to enforce them. Presently, for a host of reasons, sex workers havefew, if any, options to report unfair or exploitative workplace conditions. One project participantsuggested that, as things stand, the police are the only available option:A. Women get fired all the time, not showing up to work, late all the time, customercomplaints. Customers will complain if the girl rushed them out or a girl was toocold, or not nice enough she would just walk away if something bad happened there,there is no one she feels she could complain to unless maybe if she went to vice [police]and said they are pimping the girls in this establishment.- female off-street out-call sex workerThis is hardly a satisfactory situation, because many sex workers stated that police do not take theirreports seriously. Given that the police are not in a position to establish or enforce employment law,sex workers feel they have few, if any options, to change poor working conditions. Workers in otherindustries have access to a number of different complaint mechanisms to combat poor working conditions.For example, if a worker feels that an employer is violating an OHSR standard, they can makea complaint to the Workers’ Compensation Board. Also, where an employee feels that their employeris violating a provision of the ESA, they can make a written complain to the Employment StandardsBranch (the “Branch”).Under the ESA, the Branch reviews the complaint and, if it suspects that a violation is occurring,it will attempt to mediate a settlement between the employee and the employer. If this is not possible,then the complaint may be taken to the Employment Standards Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) for ahearing. The Tribunal comprises independent members who make a decision based on the facts aspresented to them. Complainants can request that their identity be kept confidential, and it will notbe disclosed unless the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of a proceeding, or the director believesthat the disclosure is in the public interest. The director of the Employment Standards Branch hasaccess to all relevant information during the course of the investigation.Sex workers face a number of barriers should they wish to participate in this complaint process.The main reason that sex workers do not report their employment concerns to government agenciesis that it could attract the attention of police and result in criminal consequences for the worker orthe business owner. Another reason is sex workers do not make complaints is that the existing bodies