When the subject of "moral objections" to a particular job comes up, it's usually met with a certain degree of derision. Some folks (often liberal) consider it a code word for someone wanting to discriminate based on some bizarro religious belief. Other folks (often conservative) consider it a weaselly way to get out of work (provision of abortion/contraceptive services aside).
But here's a tale from Germany that ought to give folks (especially "work or go begging" types) pause:
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services'' at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.
Prostitution was legalised in Germany just over two years ago and brothel owners -- who must pay tax and employee health insurance -- were granted access to official databases of jobseekers. The waitress, an unemployed information technology professional, had said that she was willing to work in a bar at night and had worked in a cafe. She received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her "profile" and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman, who has not been identified for legal reasons, realise that she was calling a brothel.
Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job -- including in the sex industry -- or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
My political/philosophical inclination is toward legalization of prostitution, as there are any number of activities which are legal but not moral, and confusing the two is often dangerous (that it would address a number of the problems stemming from the illegality of the sex trade is a side benefit). This story provides a counter-argument -- if something is legal, then moral objections to it become legally (if not societally) problematic, and we shift from penalizing people for doing something we consider immoral to penalizing people for not doing something they consider immoral.
How irksome.
(via the Flea)
UPDATE: A variation on the theme from Reuters.
UPDATE: Snopes is somewhat skeptical.
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I think we could legalize victimless crimes and still allow for an exception to the kind of problem above. I'm thinking of something like conscientious objector status to be used for unemployed people offered jobs contrary to their ethical beliefs.
I'm surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often (perhaps it does, and I'm just ignorant). Some similar cases I can imagine: a vegetarian or other animal-rights activist being required to take a position in a butcher shop or a slaughterhouse; an environmentalist being required to take a job in a mine or with a lumber company; an anti-abortion activist being required to work as a secretary in an abortion clinic; a Catholic being required to work in a family-planning clinic; a peace activist being required to take a position in a weapons-manufacturing facility. I'm sure we can come up with many others if we put our minds to it.
There's no question in my mind that a person in any of these circumstances should be given an exemption after documenting their beliefs in something like the way a conscientious objector used to. However, I'd probably lower the standard of evidence in this kind of case since I think there is less motivation for the average job seeker to attempt to decieve the authorities in this kind of case.
Certainly one would hope there would be exemptions for such things -- though there are those who would game the system, and others who would denigrate the particular value or significance of a particular moral stance.
I imagine the CO process used with the military could be of value, but I imagine that's also a more disciplined and straightforward of a process.
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