Prostitution Reform Act 2003

Preliminary provisions

5: Definition of operator

You could also call this:

"Who is in charge of a prostitution business"

When you think about a business of prostitution, an operator is someone who owns, operates, controls, or manages that business. You can be an operator if you are the director of a company that runs the business. You can also be an operator if you decide things like when or where a sex worker will work, what conditions they work in, or how much money they get paid.

If you employ, supervise, or direct someone who makes these decisions, you are also an operator. However, if you are a sex worker at a small brothel that you own and operate yourself, you are not considered an operator of that business. In fact, a small owner-operated brothel does not have an operator, according to this law.

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Part 1Preliminary provisions

5Definition of operator

  1. In this Act, operator, in relation to a business of prostitution, means a person who, whether alone or with others, owns, operates, controls, or manages the business; and includes (without limitation) any person who—

  2. is the director of a company that is an operator; or
    1. determines—
      1. when or where an individual sex worker will work; or
        1. the conditions in which sex workers in the business work; or
          1. the amount of money, or proportion of an amount of money, that a sex worker receives as payment for prostitution; or
          2. is a person who employs, supervises, or directs any person who does any of the things referred to in paragraph (b).
            1. Despite anything in subsection (1), a sex worker who works at a small owner-operated brothel is not an operator of that business of prostitution, and, for the purposes of this Act, a small owner-operated brothel does not have an operator.