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Sex job ads banned at UK employment offices

2010-08-02 12:02 (UTC)

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters Life!) - Britain is to ban employers looking for lap dancers, strippers, topless barmaids or sexy web-cam performers from placing adverts at Jobcentres. Such a ban had previously been in place at the taxpayer-funded employment exchanges but that changed seven years ago when Ann Summers, a sex toys and suggestive lingerie retailer, successfully argued at the High Court that it was unlawful.

Now the government plans to legislate to protect vulnerable jobseekers who are keen to get back to work from feeling they have to consider jobs that they are not comfortable with, Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said in a statement. '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.'

The statement specified that Jobcentres would no longer advertise jobs 'that involve the direct sexual stimulation of others' because public money should not be a conduit to such work. However, Jobcentres will continue to advertise other types of vacancies in the adult entertainment sector, such as cleaning jobs in striptease clubs.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Steve Addison)

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