A German court ruled on Thursday that people paid to talk dirty in the Internet's swelling number of sex chatrooms should enjoy the same rights as other workers, regardless of whether their job is "immoral."
Published:
14 August 2000 y., Monday
The court rejected claims by a north German firm offering live online sex chats that the immorality of the work done by its staff should exempt the company from having to pay social security contributions for them. A judge ruled that the morality of online sex services, which mostly employ women to meet a seemingly insatiable and largely male appetite for impersonal stimulation, was irrelevant and decided staff should be treated as they would in other jobs.
The company, which was not named in the hearing, is now liable for more than one million marks ($461,900) to cover contributions for staff it said were self-employed freelancers, but who the court decided were employees.
Even mainstream Internet portals in Germany, where topless women are a nightly fixture
on national television, are awash with links to subscription-based Web sites promising
such delights as "live chats with hundreds of the hottest girls."
Social security contributions in Germany are equivalent to about 41 percent of gross pay, though the center-left government has pledged to cut this back as part of a drive to make German job markets more flexible and the economy more competitive.
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
A baby girl loses her mother at birth. A few years later, she is “sold” into domestic labor by her own father.
more »
Scarce and unevenly distributed rainfall has made water a key economic and social development issue in Morocco.
more »
Rainfall in August and September 2009 confirmed the fears of serious risk of natural disasters in years to come resulting from rising sea levels, greater erosion of coastal zones, destruction of the mangroves, and devastating floods.
more »
Fifteen years after the groundbreaking Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in 1995, the international community has clear legal norms on the prohibition of discrimination and the active promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment.
more »
Ahead of International Women's Day, the European Commission strengthened and deepened its commitment to equality between women and men with a Women's Charter.
more »
The World Bank Institute has launched an online multiplayer game, EVOKE, designed to empower young people all over the world, but especially in Africa, to start solving urgent social problems like hunger, poverty, disease, conflict, climate change, sustainable energy, lack of health care and education.
more »
One of the crucial questions facing EU asylum policy is the extent to which countries share the demands of asylum seekers.
more »
Youth in three major universities explored what they can do to address climate change, something that experts in a knowledge-sharing forum in Silliman University in Dumaguete City say is already at Filipinos’ doorsteps.
more »
The Parliament needs to connect more with women voters as research shows them to be trapped in a vicious circle, being under-represented in the EP and EU politics in general and, therefore, less interested and less involved than men.
more »
The streets of India became a kaleidoscope of colour, as locals celebrated Holi.
more »