Anyone including sex workers can and do falsely advertise their services as massage therapy.
Consequently, professional massage therapists and their employees are regularly subject to sexual harassment from clients demanding sexual services because of the confusion between the two very different professions
No effective protections for professional massage therapists. Sexual harassment and abuse in a private massage room by a client is impossible to prove because it simply becomes one person’s word against the other
Massage & Myotherapy Australia is calling on the ACT’s Attorney-General Tara Cheyne to ensure any legislative changes involving the decriminalise and protection of sex worker rights also protects the human rights of professional massage therapists.
Despite recent media reports of wide consultation, the professional massage sector has yet to be consulted about the potential effects of sex work decriminalisation, yet the professional massage sector is directly affected by such change.
Ann Davey CEO said, ‘At present, anyone including sex workers can and do falsely advertise their services as massage therapy.’
Consequently, professional massage therapists and their employees are regularly subject to sexual harassment from clients demanding sexual services because of the confusion between the two very different professions.
‘Whilst we welcome the protections provided to sex workers within the decriminalisation of sex work, legislative change to protect the rights of sex workers must also address the conflation of the two very different professions.
‘With a nearly 80% female workforce, and sexual harassment occurring against some female and male massage therapists daily, any decriminalising sex work that does not include protecting the human rights of professional qualified massage therapists, in our view, is unethical and unacceptable,’ Mrs Davey said.
‘At present there are no effective protections for professional massage therapists. Sexual harassment and abuse in a private massage room by a client is impossible to prove because it simply becomes one person’s word against the other.’
In a response to a survey of the Associations 8500 members, 76% of respondents reported that they must regularly take steps to protect themselves and their staff from sexual harassment and abuse for sexual services because sex work services are falsely referred to and advertised as massage therapy.
Decriminalisation in other states has failed to address this and the ACCC is powerless to prosecute false advertising as financial loss cannot be proved.
Mrs Davey said that the solution is a simple one.
As per its dictionary meanings the word ‘liaison’ is an appropriate substitute for the word ‘massage’ and will clearly distinguish sex work, as in the following example: ‘sexy liaison’, ‘sensual liaison’, ‘sexual liaison’, ‘erotic liaison’ or ‘liaison therapy’ and ‘liaison parlour’.
Dictionary meanings of ‘liaison’ include:
- a sexual relationship, especially between two people not married to each other’ (Cambridge Dictionary),
- ‘a sexual relationship, especially one in secret’ (Oxford Language Dictionary);
- a secret sexual liaison (Britanica Dictionary)
- a sexual or romantic relationship between two people as a liaison (Collins English Dictionary)’
‘As the conversation has successfully changed from prostitution to sex work, the conversation around sex work should and can also change from massage therapy to liaison therapy or service.
Sexual harassment of professional massage therapists is now well known and documented and the effects of sex decriminalisation and community confusion between the two vastly different professions is not an unforeseen consequence.
Consequently, we call on the ACT Attorney General to take the responsible ethical lead and ensure sex work decriminalisation also moves to protect the rights of professional massage therapists. This will help to create a legitimate and well know language around the sex work industry, while creating a safer work environment for professional massage therapists.
Mrs Davey added that as a co-regulated sector of healthcare, the professionalism of the massage sector now mirrors that of AHPRA registered health professionals.
Unlike sex work, the requirements to become a member of an accredited massage association, mirror the requirements of AHPRA for registered health professionals, which includes strict codes of conduct, police checks and annual membership requirements.
Mrs Davey said, ‘While creating a safer working environment for sex workers is a welcome promised outcome, decriminalisation should not occur at the expense of the human rights of professional massage therapists.’
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