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Camden New Journal - by SARA NEWMAN
Published: 18th October 2007

Charmayne Wellington outside Jobcentre Plus in Kentish Town Road`

Jobcentre’s not-so-pretty proposal

Outrage as Kentish Town employment agency carries an advert for ‘escort’ sex workers

AN out-of-work sports therapist was outraged when, searching the Jobcentre’s database for work, she was confronted with an advert inviting her to become a sex worker.
Charmayne Wellington, 41, of Gaisford Street in Kentish Town, found a posting for a “masseuse” at £120 per hour on the computers at the Jobcentre, on Kentish Town Road.
Ms Wellington, who has provided physiotherapy to the Arsenal women’s reserve football team and worked as an adviser for the Youth Advocate Programme in south London, is concerned that young impressionable school-leavers might be easily led into a life of prostitution and drugs.
“What do you have to do for £120?,” she asked adding: “A young person would not know what they are getting themselves into. They would not understand that it is the job making you feel really bad. They end up drinking and taking drugs to escape how they are feeling.
“We want them to stop committing crime and get a job but who is protecting these kids?”
She added: “You got all these crack dealers trying to reel them in and then you go to the job centre and you get this.”
The advert for Pretty Women in east London read: “Vacancy not suitable for under 18s. Previous experience is not essential. Duties will include massaging clients, which may cause embarrassment to some people.”
When the New Journal telephoned the number, a woman explained that the advert was not actually for a masseuse at all.
She said: “It’s actually an escort agency service. If you look up escorts on the internet you will see, it’s being with a man and going on dates.”
When pressed further for clarification she admitted that the employee would be expected to perform sexual acts.
She added: “We also have a fully licensed beauty parlour.”
A Kentish Town Jobcentre spokeswoman said: “They (the adverts) are put on by a central office who take all the details and place the vacancies on the system. They must have made a mistake. It’s not even read in our office. I can only apologise and thank you for bringing it to our attention.”
Team manager, Jill Andrzejewski, who is responsible for entering the jobs on the database, said such vacancies are regularly advertised.
She said: “After all they (job-seekers) do not have to apply for these vacancies. It’s sad. We just have to follow guidelines.”
A spokeswoman at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which is responsible for the nationwide Jobcentre Plus databases said: “Following a high court ruling four years ago we are obliged to post adverts that pass standard quality controls.”
The 2003 court case deemed government policy banning Jobcentre postings for jobs with the sex shop chain, Ann Summers, as “unlawful”.
The DWP is suspending all vacancies with Pretty Women pending an investigation.

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