Last Updated: 18 March, 2002 08:25 GMT
BERLIN (Reuters) - Prostitutes working in a Berlin brothel have been offered employment contracts with a 40-hour working week and a profit-sharing scheme, according to a German newspaper. Bild newspaper said Felicitas Weigmann, the owner of the posh Berlin brothel "Cafe Pssst!", drew up the first job contracts for her staff after the German parliament passed an historic law last year giving prostitutes new employment rights.
In exchange for a regular 40-hour week, prostitutes at "Cafe Pssst!" are entitled to a basic wage of 600 euros per month plus a "profit sharing" payment of 40 euros per client. They can, however, choose to remain free agents without a contract.
The law passed by parliament last year gave prostitutes the right to claim social security, health insurance and a pension. It also allowed them to pursue through the courts customers who refuse to pay.
Prostitution is legal in Germany and prostitutes' earnings were always liable to tax. But before the law was passed, sexual services were legally declared "immoral".
Germany has an estimated 400,000 prostitutes, whose services are used 1.2 million times a day.
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 Buffalo Activist Network http://www.buffaloactivist.net
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