IUSW GMB Briefing on Home Office recommendations for new legislation on the sex industry – November 2008

Following consultations, which involved members of the GMB, the Home Office has unveiled plans for possible legislation on the sex industry. The main proposals are

• criminalising paying for sex with someone who is controlled for gain (to be considered a strict liability offence)
• giving police powers to close brothels
• adjusting the wording of legislation on street sex work and
• running marketing campaigns aimed at clients about trafficking and street sex work.

As part of the GMB family, we are sending you a briefing on these proposals outlining GMB policy.

The GMB absolutely opposes any increased criminalisation of sex work.

Increased criminalisation is against the interest of those sex workers who are our members and, equally importantly, it is against the interest of those suffering exploitation and coercion within the sex industry (through trafficking or otherwise).

Trades unionists know, and the history of the Labour Party shows, the solution to abuses within any industry is the promotion of full human, civil and labour rights for those working within it.

As recognised at GMB Congress 2003, criminalisation of sex work is responsible for the lack of employment rights, casualisation, stigma, widespread violence, exploitation and abuse in the global sex industry, and  legislation does not provide adequate protection for sex workers.
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