Sex workers in Belgium have gained employment rights including the right to sick days, maternity pay and pension rights under the first law of its kind in the world.

Lawmakers voted in May to give sex workers the same employment protections as any other employee, to clamp down on abuse and exploitation.

The law, which went into force on Sunday, is intended to end a grey zone created in 2022 when sex work was decriminalised in Belgium but without any legal protections on sex workers, or labour rights such as unemployment benefit or health insurance.

Under the law, sex workers have the right to refuse sexual partners or to perform specific acts and can stop an act at any time and they cannot be sacked for exercising such rights.

Employers must be of “good character” with a business residence in Belgium; they must also ensure their premises are equipped with panic buttons, clean linen, showers and condoms.

The protections do not cover home working, or activities such as striptease and pornography.

The Belgian Union of Sex Workers described the law as “a huge step forward, ending legal discrimination against sex workers” but said the rules could “be instrumentalised” to reduce or eliminate sex work.

It added: “We already see certain municipalities hiding behind the words ‘safety’ and ‘hygiene’ to promulgate very strict local regulations that make sex-work almost impossible on their territory.”

Council of Francophone Women of Belgium, a feminist organisation had criticised the law in 2023 when it was first published, saying it would be “catastrophic” for young girls and victims of trafficking.

“To assume that prostitution exists and that we must protect workers is to accept this sexist violence and not to fight it.”