Germany 'Forcing' Prostitution????

[Merika]

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telegraph.co.uk I Monday 31 January 2005

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
By Clare Chapman
(Filed: 30/01/2005)

A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners – who must pay tax and employee health insurance – were granted access to official databases of jobseekers.

The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe.

She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile'' and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job – including in the sex industry – or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990. [ 11.9% in Dec 2004]

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

When the waitress looked into suing the job centre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.

"There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry," said Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specialises in such cases. "The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."

Miss Garweg said that women who had worked in call centres had been offered jobs on telephone sex lines. At one job centre in the city of Gotha, a 23-year-old woman was told that she had to attend an interview as a "nude model", and should report back on the meeting. Employers in the sex industry can also advertise in job centres, a move that came into force this month. A job centre that refuses to accept the advertisement can be sued.

Tatiana Ulyanova, who owns a brothel in central Berlin, has been searching the online database of her local job centre for recruits.

"Why shouldn't I look for employees through the job centre when I pay my taxes just like anybody else?" said Miss Ulyanova.

Ulrich Kueperkoch wanted to open a brothel in Goerlitz, in former East Germany, but his local job centre withdrew his advertisement for 12 prostitutes, saying it would be impossible to find them.

Mr Kueperkoch said that he was confident of demand for a brothel in the area and planned to take a claim for compensation to the highest court. Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.

Miss Garweg believes that pressure on job centres to meet employment targets will soon result in them using their powers to cut the benefits of women who refuse jobs providing sexual services.

"They are already prepared to push women into jobs related to sexual services, but which don't count as prostitution,'' she said.

"Now that prostitution is no longer considered by the law to be immoral, there is really nothing but the goodwill of the job centres to stop them from pushing women into jobs they don't want to do."

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[darkangelism]

ich liebe deutschland

[Stone]

WOW!! great story Merika.

I think prostitution SHOULD be leagilized and TAXed ect BUT this woman should not have lost her unemployment because she didn't take that job. It's a moral issure, I would never do it or think twice about it. I do however think that it should be legal.

However a 25 year old healthy single lady shouldn't be on unemployment very long. There is no reason for it I think unemployment is abused.

[Stone]

Originally Posted by darkangelism

ich liebe deutschland

LMAO!! HAHA hummmm DA are you planning a vacation? You and Samson should go check it out

[darkangelism]

i wish, no, i refuse to resort to buying a prositiute until im 25, and next weekend is my birthday i have a good chance of getting laid then...


i do want to go to germany for the beer and to drive really fast on the autobahn, but not drink and drive.


and its the only language besides english that i can sorta understand

[Merika]

I guess if prostitution was legal in Florida and they posted their employment needs with the state...it would be the same as having, BY LAW, to accept any job which was offered to you to keep any benefits or food stamps.

I would think if these, most being single moms, were willing to be hookers....they wouldn't have to ask the state for spit. But that's not what they are.......they are women no one cared enough about to help. I wouldn't sell them off as sex slaves.

[Duke]

Legalizing prostitution in this day and age, especially considering how easy it is to catch an STD? No protection is 100% safe, except abstinence.

[darkangelism]

But legalizing would allow for registration and testing andwill keep ones with diseases off the street. It works in nevada.

[Duke]

I thought HIV could go undetected in the bloodstream for years.

[darkangelism]

i dunno if that is true or not.

[Merika]

Originally Posted by Duke

I thought HIV could go undetected in the bloodstream for years.

I think you are correct Duke. I tried to find a clean answer on the net....but all I found were condom commericials. Another reason why I think all these agencies really care and aren't funded elsewhere.

[Duke]

I looked as well Merika and everything was links and PDF's so I gave up.

[Samson]

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

Interestingly, I made exactly the same "rule" in my house for Delilah that the German government made for their citizens: Get the f#$% outta the house and get a J-O-B before we throw your lazy a#$ out on the street.

Delilah chose the dental nurse (assistant) route. I would have been Much happier had she chosen to return to teach, and only slightly less happy had she chosen the brothel. :wink:

[Samson]

BTW, DA.....

25th birthday is the deadline, huh?

Probably a good topic for another thread: Why do you think you're gonna get lucky in the next week?

[Merika]

Maybe someone DA knows is purchasing him a ticket to Germany for his Birthday. HAHA!