León plans jobs for prostitutes: policy or political patronage?

León approves a plan to rehouse prostitutes: reintegration or jobs for the boys?

The city council of León, Spain, has approved the I Municipal Plan for the Comprehensive Care of People in Prostitution, an initiative aimed at offering job alternatives to those who work in prostitution or are victims of trafficking. The measure, presented without much fanfare, has met with near-unanimous skepticism among analysts: nobody believes it will deliver what its promoters promise.

The plan: good intentions, vague execution

The document, of which only the broad outlines are known, proposes "social, economic and labor alternatives". What is missing is detail: what kind of jobs? With what training? Through which companies? The lack of specifics fuels suspicions that it could turn into discretionary placements in the public sector, as has already peine in well-known cases of cronyism.

The economic gap: what prostitution pays versus what is on offer

The main stumbling block is economic. Those who work in prostitution can earn in a week what a conventional worker makes in a month. Eight hours a day under a boss cannot compete with flexible hours and high earnings. No matter how many reintegration plans are unveiled, as long as the pay gap remains so vast, conventional job alternatives seem doomed to fail. Financial aid, for its part, risks becoming a top-up that does nothing to discourage the activity.

Municipal patronage: the shadow of the Ábalos case

The reference to the Ábalos case is inevitable. The policy of rehousing people in prostitution evokes the mechanisms of political co-optation: the council is accused of using such initiatives to expand its network of clients. The precedent of senior Socialist (PSOE) officials accused of placing allies in public bodies does nothing to dispel the doubts. The question that remains is whether this plan will help women leave prostitution or simply swell the municipal payroll.