Belgium becomes first country to give sex workers robust labor rights and protections

Belgium made history on Sunday as the first country in the world to allow sex workers to sign formal employment contracts — granting them access to sick days, maternity pay and pension.

The new law also guarantees fundamental rights for sex workers, including the ability to refuse clients, set the conditions of an act, and stop an act at any moment.

Lawmakers passed the law in May but it officially took effect on Sunday.

“I am a very proud Belgium sex worker right now,” Mel Meliciousss, who is part of the Belgian union of sex workers, UTSOPI, said on her Instagram. “People who are already working in the industry will be much more protect[ed], and also people who are going to work in the industry also know what their rights are.”

Offering or paying for sexual services was already not illegal in Belgium. Instead, laws targeted brothels and third parties supporting sex work — such landlords, bankers, drivers — often accusing them of “pimping.”

In 2022, Belgian lawmakers voted to decriminalize sex work and narrow the definition of pimping to ensure that sex workers do not have trouble finding a banker, insurer, driver or accountant, according to UTSOPI.

The new law goes farther, and gives sex workers labor rights and protections on par with those in other professions. That includes access to pensions, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual vacation and maternity leave.

Employers are now required to obtain authorization and meet background requirements, such as having no prior convictions for sexual assault, human trafficking or fraud. They are also required to ensure their premises are clean, sanitary and equipped with a panic button, and are prohibited from dismissing an employee who refuses a client or a specific act.

These changes were years in the making in Belgium. The sex worker union, which has been leading the effort, said that before sex workers had access to these benefits, workers felt they had to keep working several months into their pregnancy or past retirement age.

“This law is a huge step forward, ending legal discrimination against sex workers by allowing a full-fledged contract,” the group said back in May.

These protections are only granted to sex workers who sign an employment contract, and not those who are self employed. Those who perform pornography or striptease are also not covered by the law.

Prostitution has only been decriminalized in a handful of places around the world, including New Zealand, the Netherlands, and some parts of Australia — but Belgium is alone in offering the new level of comprehensive labor protections.

In the U.S., Nevada is the only state where brothels are allowed, but prostitution outside of brothels remains illegal. In recent years, New York and California moved to decriminalize loitering with the intent to engage in sex work. Last year, Maine removed penalties for those selling sexual services but kept in place laws against those buying sexual services.