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

PIVOT LEGAL SOCIETYpeople and to knowing it.Q. Okay, so from a legal perspective, if a sex worker wanted to bring a sexual harassmentclaim against a client, the first thing a court would say is where do you drawthe line basically.A. Woah, woah, woah. I’m sorry, I misunderstood you, I thought against the pimp.Q. Oh no, I meant sort of more, certainly against an employer, but also against a client.A. Okay, from the point of an employer I think yes, they are the ones that take advantage,they’re the ones that believe in free sampling of the wares. You know? You’d besurprised.- female off-street out-call sex workerBusiness owners agreed that sexual harassment by employers should be prohibited. They suggestedthat, because of the nature of the work, sexual advances by employers is more prevalent in workplaceswithin the sex industry than in other industries.A. In the employee-employer relationship there should be [a place for sexual harassmentclaims]. There should be no situation when an employer should ever be involved withstaff. Absolutely not. Well if it were like other work places you would want to saythat the owner of the business or the employees – the office staff or whatever – wouldnot really be able to grope the escort, that that wouldn’t be fair game. In the escortfield, people tend to be a little more open minded about their sexuality than in otherwork places, so there might be a certain amount of kidding around, and, you know,hugging and kissing, and stuff that might be off limits in an office environment thatwe would think nothing of in our business. For instance a lot of my ladies will go tomy photographer’s place and studio and be photographed in various stages of dressand undress. You know, nothing dirty goes on but he sees them walking around andtakes their pictures and so on and so forth. That wouldn’t fly in an office environmentbut it makes perfect sense given what they’re up to in their work.- female escort agency owner, former sex workerIt is clear from the opinions and experiences conveyed that sex workers must receive the full protectionof the law from harassing employers. Sex workers, perhaps more than other types of workers,endure sexual harassment from employers on a regular basis.Sexual harassment by clientsMany sex workers described experiencing unsolicited and unwanted sexual advances at the handsof clients, although they doubted that a clear line could be drawn between contracted sexual servicesand sexual harassment. Nevertheless, many sex workers want protection from unwanted touching,verbal insults, and coercion by clients. Many of the sex workers we interviewed stated that theyfrequently experience unwanted behaviours on the job. Sex workers generally agreed that they deservelegal protection from sexualized conduct that falls outside the scope of the agreed upon services.Although it may be difficult to draw the line between services contracted for and unwanted behaviours,it is clear that certain client acts can be considered sexual harassment, or even sexual assault,depending on the particular circumstances. It would be up to human rights tribunals to determinecase-by-case whether the conduct that is the subject of a complaint is part of the contract between aclient and worker, or whether it constitutes sexual harassment. Under the current legal regime, it isdifficult for sex workers to seek protection under human rights codes.188