'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

[seriousstan]

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.

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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.

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.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/wgerm30.xml

[slackmaster]

1. Germany is far ahead of us culturally

We must not allow a sexual services industry gap!

:crazy:

[bluestateguy]

2. That's unacceptable

I favor legalization of prostitution. Two consenting adults should be able enter into any kind of private arrangement for sex. But once a woman is ordered to take a job hooking as a condition for unemployment compensation, it is no longer a consenting relationship. Requiring a woman to flip burgers is one thing. Requiring her to flip her clothes off is another. Sexuality is a private matter, over which the state has no business interfering with the actions of adults.

[Elidor]

3. "And that's how I became…"

"Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute"

[TroubleMan]

4. I can see a movie starring Rob Schneider being made about this.

[forgethell]

6. Oh!! GAAAWD! NOOOOOOO! n/t

[Pithlet]

5. You should see the post about this in GD.

Apparently, a couple of people don't see what the problem is.