Mediaboss Marketing

2014-01-16 05:30

Madrid - Prostitutes in the Spanish tourist island Ibiza have formed a sex workers' co-operative to pay taxes and gain social security benefits - the first such group legally registered in Spain, they say.

Eleven women registered with local authorities as working members of the Sealeer Co-operative providing sexual services, said their spokesperson, Maria Jose Lopez.

"We are pioneers," she told AFP. "We are the first co-operative in Spain that can give legal cover to the girls."

The 11 active sex workers who registered in November are women in their 20s and 30s from Spain, Italy and "the East", she said, declining to elaborate.

The group is applying to register 40 more women as members.

A 42-year-old local housewife, Lopez is not a sex worker herself but registered as a member of Sealeer to act as a voluntary representative for the women, who refuse to speak to reporters.

Like any workers' co-operative, Sealeer members declare their income and pay taxes, which entitles them to public healthcare, a pension and other benefits.

A parliamentary report on prostitution in 2007 said Spaniards spent 50m a day on prostitutes, of which it estimated there were 400 000 working in the country - the latest such figures available.

In Ibiza, whose sweltering beaches draw millions of foreign tourists every year, "prostitution moves a huge amount of money in summer", in hostess bars and in private apartments, Lopez said.

Original post:
Sex workers in Spain to pay taxes