Lap dancing, a routine part of British workplaces

London, Sept 18: Lap dancing has become a part of British working life, a campaign group has said.

According to The Fawcett Society, which campaigns for women's rights, companies in the UK are turning a blind eye to the use of sex clubs by workers.

The group found that some firms knowingly authorise the use of staff expenses for entertaining clients in lap dancing and strip clubs, reports The Telegraph.

After studying lap dancing clubs' websites and contacting them directly to ask about their work with corporate clients, Fawcett researchers identified more than 300 such clubs in the UK.

Some 41 per cent of UK lap dancing clubs directly target employers through marketing on their websites, the researchers found.

Kat Banyard, the Fawcett Society researcher who wrote the report, described the sex industry as "a major threat to women's equality at work".

She said, "The sex industry is increasingly targeting the corporate market, with lap dancing clubs marketing themselves as ideal venues to host meetings and client entertaining. Yet lap dancing clubs are a form of commercial sexual exploitation and fuel sexist attitudes towards women. Their use in a work context discriminates against female employees and undermines women's status at work.

She added, "For too long, employers have engaged with the sex industry without due regard for the impact on female employees, and have failed to prevent the illicit use of the sex industry by employees in a work context."

ANI