[P2P-F] Fwd: Article - Germany : 'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

Mon Dec 26 12:24:19 CET 2011

the article, I noticed now, dates back 6 years ago - I m not sure what the
update is.

I did notice more recently in the UK and in France that controversies about
"being forced to work ( for free ) or loose ones unemployment benefits"
also arise.

for the UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/16/young-jobseekers-work-pay-unemployment

*"Young jobseekers told to work without pay or lose unemployment benefits*

*People taking up work experience places – providing up to 30 hours a week
of unpaid labour – face losing benefits if they quit"*
On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 3:15 AM, Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>wrote:

>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 7:24 PM
> Subject: Article - Germany : 'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we
> can stop your benefits'
> To: econowmix at googlegroups.com
>
>
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1482371/If-you-dont-take-a-job-as-a-prostitute-we-can-stop-your-benefits.html
>
>  'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'
>
> By Clare Chapman
>
> 12:01AM GMT 30 Jan 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.
>
> 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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