gov't to women: sell ur body or we stop benefits

[VV o n g B a]

what a doozy of a development in germany. i know nations/armies coerce conquered women to prostitution, but it's rare that a gov't will do this to their own citizens as part of policy.

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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.

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

[sOKaLiBoY]

that is just wrong i tell you. no one should ever be forced to take a job or loose their unemployment benefits. especially a job like that

[SunWuKong]

that is just wrong i tell you. no one should ever be forced to take a job or loose their unemployment benefits. especially a job like that

i disagree. making sure unemployed people take the jobs available to them will eliminate the free-loaders. however, i think certain measures should be implemented for people to justifiably refuse a job based on moral/ethical reasons or disability reasons. that'll prevent something like this particular case from happening.

[nola]

This is surprising because Germany is a good place for enlightened women.

[sOKaLiBoY]

i disagree. making sure unemployed people take the jobs available to them will eliminate the free-loaders. however, i think certain measures should be implemented for people to justifiably refuse a job based on moral/ethical reasons or disability reasons. that'll prevent something like this particular case from happening.

i think that's what i meant to say. they should take a job because they need one. i just thought in her case it was wrong

[thaite]

The ruling will be overturned. Prostitution was legalzied only a couple of years ago. The law that requires a person on benefits to take the first available job is an older law. It's merely a case of the legislature needing to catch up with the current situation. nothing to get in an uproar over.

[mrazntre]

This is the stupidest thing the Germans have done since (i dunno, WWII?).

It's really surprising that morally reprehensible jobs/acts are legal. It really makes you wonder about the world when things like this are brought into law by the government and it's not even the legalization of prostitution, but the demand on workers to take on any available job. I understand the premise to it, but there really should have been much more thought put into the legislation as to the impact of what was done. This just goes to show how dumb politicians can be.

i disagree. making sure unemployed people take the jobs available to them will eliminate the free-loaders. however, i think certain measures should be implemented for people to justifiably refuse a job based on moral/ethical reasons or disability reasons. that'll prevent something like this particular case from happening.

I understand your point, but it shouldn't be so socialistic. I don't think anything like that would work in the US due to the (seemingly) symbiotic relationship between the government and private business. This is way too overt for us capitalists.

Anyhow, there should have been more thought put into the widespread effects of the new and existing legislation.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

I strongly suspect it's bullshit. Or at least another case of story inflation.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=9&u=/nm/20050201/od_nm/germany_prostitute_dc
A spokesman for the Federal Labor Office said that if job seekers said they were prepared to work as, for example, dancers in strip bars, advisers could put them in touch with any suitable employers, but vacancies would not be displayed in job centers.

He also stressed job centers would not look for prostitutes on behalf of brothels, nor offer sex industry jobs to people who hadn't specifically mentioned it as an area of interest.

Speculation has grown over recent weeks that Germany's new welfare reforms, obliging the long-term unemployed to take any available job or risk losing their benefits, could lead to women being offered jobs in the sex industry.