Campaign groups condemn government department for sanctioning �exploitation�
By Helen McArdle and Jonathan Liew

SCOTLAND's trade union congress has called for the abolition of "outrageous" advertisement of sex industry vacancies by Jobcentre Plus, amid fears that rising unemployment could see vulnerable women lured by the promise of lucrative earnings.

A co-ordinated campaign by human rights group Object, the Feminist Coalition against Prostitution, and women's rights group Eaves, has branded UK job centres as "Pimp Centre Plus" in protest against the growing numbers of "exploitative" posts on offer.

Latest statistics show the service advertised 351 roles within the adult entertainment industry, ranging from party planners selling sex toys and sex shop workers to strippers, topless models and even a "semi-nude butler".

Women's groups and the STUC are demanding an end to "government-sanctioning of sex industry jobs", citing an incident where girls as young as 17 applied for vacancies as a masseuse, only to find they were expected to sell sex.

The legitimate advertising of jobs in the adult entertainment industry has been a major issue for feminist and human rights groups since a legal ruling in 2003 ordered that the sex shop Ann Summers could advertise its vacancies in Jobcentre Plus.

Under the ruling, centres must carry any job vacancy as long as it is complies with the law. Apart from the more mundane Ann Summers-style party planner roles, there has been mounting concern that the ruling also opens the door for lap-dancing, pole-dancing and strip venues to recruit more widely - professions which their detractors claim are gateways into prostitution and pornography.

Mary Senior, the assistant secretary of the STUC, pictured below, said: "We're deeply concerned about attempts to normalise this because I think it's just perpetuating the objectification of women and certain attitudes - violent attitudes, abusive attitudes."

She added: "Many people who become involved in this sort of work are vulnerable, whether it's because of poverty, drug abuse or other sorts of substance abuse or other traumatic events which have happened in their lives. This so-called industry' preys on these types of women, and I think it's very disturbing."

In December a company called Revolver Models, which runs "small-scale operations" in Scotland, was offering "on-target earnings" of £500 a night for male and female lap dancers. A job in Doncaster requiring women to pose naked in front of a webcam and talk about sex to paying online customers was removed in March.

Anna van Heeswijk, Object's grassroots co-ordinator, said: "It is not acceptable for a government agency to be promoting jobs to women which often involve violence and abuse and which send out the message that women are sexual objects to be bought and sold."

She disagreed that taking such job adverts off the market would deprive unemployed people of the chance to work, saying: "It's quite a small number of vacancies. The bigger question is that this is the government endorsing the abuse and exploitation of women."

However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Work and Pensions said that nobody was forced to apply for a position, or threatened with the loss of benefits if they refused to apply. But she added that the DWP is "currently looking at the rules to see how we can tighten regulations even further". It is due to publish the findings of a consultation on the issue in June.

Lap-dancing clubs have divided opinion since they first arrived in the UK in 1995, with some arguing they belong in the sex industry and others bracketing them with leisure activities.

In February the Home Office announced plans to re-categorise them as "sex encounter venues", prompting calls for the Scottish government to follow suit. At present, lap-dancing clubs are regulated under the same licence as nightclubs, live music venues and karaoke bars, and by September will be on the same legal footing as pubs. To date, the Scottish government has declined to review the licensing regulations, arguing that it is the responsibility of individual local authorities.

A report into the industry in 2004, which included four Glasgow lap-dancing clubs still in operation, found that "the lack of employment rights, the experience of accumulating debt, expectations of the customers, and the fierce competition create a climate where the selling and buying of sex on the premises becomes more likely".

Half of the Glasgow customers surveyed admitted they went to the clubs looking for sex, and 25% claimed they had had sexual encounters with dancers on the premises.

Tony Cochrane, owner of the Private Eye chain of "adult nightclubs" which has branches in Aberdeen, Dundee and Dunfermline, has recruited via Jobcentre Plus for the past two years. He believes the industry is unfairly targeted by "feminist groups lumping them in with pornography and prostitutes".

He added: "These are just normal girls looking to make a bit of extra money. Some of them are single parents and they find it's a good job to survive, especially in this day and age. But we really encourage people not to jump in at the deep end and go rushing after the money."

Catherine Stephens, spokeswoman for the International Sex Workers' Union, which campaigns for the labour rights of people in the adult entertainment industry, claims action like that taken by Object is counter-productive.

She said: "Pressure at work is not exclusive to the sex industry. It can be dealt with most effectively by giving people in the industry the right to union protection and safer working conditions, which is exactly what these so-called feminist groups are campaigning against, and in doing so they are playing into the hands of those companies which would attempt to exploit them."