Sex industry job ads banned
Sex industry job adverts like one for nude webcam performers which outraged a Bridgwater mum, have been banned from Jobcentres.
The Government’s Minister for Employment Chris Grayling says the move will serve to protect people who are anxious to get work from feeling they have to consider jobs that they aren’t comfortable with.
The Mercury revealed in May how Camden Road woman Carole Ann Richards stumbled on the £100-a-day job ad at the Jobcentre in Northgate. She hit out at the then-Labour Government for ‘promoting the sex trade’. Carole Ann also claimed jobs based on the exploitation of sex and the sex industry could lead hard-up young jobseekers into the profession.
Yesterday Mr Grayling said: “It’s absolutely wrong that the Government advertises jobs that could support the exploitation of people. “We’ve taken immediate action today to stop certain adult entertainment vacancies from being advertised through Jobcentre Plus.
“We shouldn’t put vulnerable people in an environment where they’re exposed to these types of jobs and could feel under pressure to work in the sex industry.”
Jobcentre Plus will no longer advertise jobs that involve the direct sexual stimulation of others because publicly funded services should not be a conduit to this work, he added. The ban would cover such jobs as lap dancers, web-cam performers, and strippers, but vacancies in the retail, manufacturing and distribution sectors of the industry would still be accepted, for example a cleaning job in a lap dancing club.