"Immoral" job

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.