4th March 2014

Government wage incentive scheme places 18-24 year olds in 'gateway' sex industry jobs - Object

The government is falling short of its commitment to protect jobseekers from feeling pressured into work in the sex industry, by promoting wage incentives for work placements for 18-24 year olds in ‘gateway’ ancillary jobs on porn film sets, and in lap dancing clubs, ‘saunas’ and ‘massage parlours’.

In 2010 the government made a commitment to end the advertising of sex industry jobs through Jobcentre Plus. The then Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said “we shouldn’t put vulnerable people in an environment where they’re exposed to these types of jobs and could feel under pressure to work in the sex industry”. However, the current wage incentive youth contract defines as acceptable for 18-24 year olds placements that are deep within the most exploitative parts of the sex industry, such as in lap/pole dancing clubs, strip clubs, businesses of prostitution such as saunas and massage parlours, or jobs as glamour model photographers, web-cam operators, sound technicians, producers and directors for pornographic films.

There is a huge global demand for ‘barely legal’ young people, especially young women, for exploitation within the sex industries. The government is giving pimps, pornographers and other sex industry profiteers financial incentives to recruit them through this new scheme. With the government placing young jobseekers in the heart of these industries, and normalising the commercial sexual exploitation within them, and with the financial pressures of minimum wage work placements, many people could easily move into other sex industry roles.

Anna Van Heeswijk, CEO of OBJECT said:

“The government policy to subsidise ancillary jobs for young people in pornography, lap dancing clubs, ‘massage parlours’ and ‘saunas’,  runs the risk of encouraging vulnerable young women into positions of potential sexual exploitation. This is deeply concerning, and it undermines the government commitment to protect job seekers from feeling pressured into the sex industry. The sex industry is not an ordinary industry. It is one in which many women experience violence, exploitation and abuse – an industry that markets women as sexual commodities. It is unacceptable for the government to be pushing vulnerable young people into such an industry and helping to legitimise sexual exploitation and abuse, and it is time that government job centres stopped acting as a message board for the sex industry once and for all.”

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OBJECT is an award-winning organisation that campaigns to end the sexual objectification of women in the media and popular culture, the mainstreaming of the sex industries and to end all forms of commercial sexual exploitation by combining high-end lobbying and grassroots activism.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/269379/wp-pg-chapter-20.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/grayling-we-ll-stop-sex-jobs-being-advertised-in-jobcentres

Press Release here.