Massage parlours “more akin to brothels” that have mushroomed everywhere are giving legitimate businesses a bad name and should be regulated, the GRTU said.
Marcel Mizzi, vice president of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, GRTU, said the situation had gotten out of hand and was harming legitimate massage parlours that offered professional services.
“The truth is that most of these small parlours advertise massage but are truly places where clients go for extras; they are in many respects whorehouses,” he said.
This was creating problems for legitimate massage operators, who sometimes faced clients demanding sexual services, he added.
Asked whether the GRTU was in favour of legalising brothels, Mr Mizzi said some of these massage parlours were simply a guise for brothels.
“It is useless beating around the bush; if there is a demand for sexual services it should be regulated and in this way legitimate businesses would not be harmed.”
However, Mr Mizzi also raised concerns over the well-being of clients seeking massage services.
“While legitimate operators invest in their staff through training, clients may not know the difference and instead use the services of unqualified masseurs, with all the health consequences that this may create.”
The health aspect was highlighted recently in a report indicating a trend of older men diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections contracted after engaging in sexual activity at Chinese massage parlours.
Mr Mizzi said the government should use the opportunity created by the drive to regulate gentlemen’s clubs and also regularise massage parlours. He insisted the GRTU was not against competition but this had to be legitimate.
The government has opened a consultation process to regularise gentlemen’s clubs as there is no specific licence that adequately defines their operations.
Calls to instil clarity have long been made after the law courts, on several occasions, threw out cases instituted by the police against gentlemen’s clubs for breach of public morality.
Under the current licence regime these clubs are often registered as bars despite their main attraction being scantily clad women performing erotic pole dances. Dancers also offer clients private exhibitions against a fee.
The clubs operate in a grey area and it is unclear at law to what extent the dancers can get intimate with clients and how far they can go when undressing.
Different legislative models exist abroad that define whether dancers can be touched by clients, whether there should be a minimum distance between them and clients, and whether dancers can strip completely naked. According to GRTU deputy president Philip Fenech, the consultation process should look at different licensing models abroad, where this activity already exists.
“As a country we have to decide what we want and where we intend to go. The important thing is to remove the vagueness that exists today so that gentlemen’s clubs can operate in clarity,” he said.