As an employer of massage therapists, you also have a resonsiblity in helping to untangle massage therapy from prostitution. The many Sexually Oriented Businesses in your communities continue to give massage therapy a bad image.
As a business owner, one of the first things to do when setting up your massage business is to start developing relationships with law enforcement in your area. You will need to make sure that they really understand the challenges of being a massage therapist and the risk involved such as the potential for sexual harassment from clients and potential clients. It is important to collaborate with law enforcement on the best way to deal with cases like this. While it is not an emergency situation, there needs to be a way to report the people who are the harassers.
You will also want to develop relationships with law enforcement officials so that you can report the many sexually oriented businesses in you area when you find them. It is important to be able to have a contact to call with your suspicions and let them do the investigations.
Many states require massage establishement licenses which are an attempt to untangle massage from sexually oriented businesses. These special licenses put the responsiblity on the massage therapist/business owner who have already jumped through the hoops of licensing which often include extensive education requirements, fingerprinting and background checks along with requirements for adding a license number to advertisements. Some also require that massage licenses be hanging on the walls of the businesses along with photo ID or requirements to carry photo ID. Many SOB’s have been actually complying with the hanging the license on the wall, but they just have one license with a name and the people working there all say that one name, making it difficult to investigate.
As an employer, it is also your responsiblity to keep your employees safe from harm from sexual harassment and sexual assaults. Create employee manuals with the exact steps to take when a client or potential client is suspicious or actually harasses employees. Verify each massage therapists license on the board of massage website.
