ABSTRACT
Occupational health and safety provisions are a factor which many contemporary workers take for granted, particularly when their work places put them at risk of injury or illness. However, despite sometimes being regarded as ‘the oldest profession’, the occupational health and safety needs of commercial sex workers or prostitutes have largely been ignored, except in relation to sexually transmissible infections (STIs). Rather, as is argued in this chapter, provisions that have the potential to reduce the health and safety risks of this occupation group have tended to be by-products of other efforts, such as attempts to reduce levels of STIs in the wider community. Consequently, recognition of a broader range of health and safety issues for commercial sex workers have until recent years received scant recognition except from sex workers themselves and others closely aligned with the industry. Indeed, the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (2003) has noted that the needs of commercial sex workers tend to be overlooked by occupational health and safety and other employment regulations.
