<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0qmrhB_1H3ocZ0A00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0qmrhB_1H3ocZ0A00" width="1200" height="630" ></figure><p>Worcester would license bodywork businesses and their workers for the first time under draft rules that the city’s top inspector says target human trafficking at an estimated 25 to 30 illicit spas.</p><p>Nicholas Antanavica, commissioner of Inspectional Services, walked the Board of Health through the proposal Monday, Nov. 9. He said the city has roughly 50 to 75 bodywork businesses in all, and staff will rely on those estimates until inspectors complete a citywide count.</p><p>“One of the biggest things that we found around body works is that they harbor illicit activity for human trafficking,” Antanavica said.</p><p>The 16-section draft goes further than his presentation in several places. It would limit business hours and let the board permanently revoke a permit after finding that a crime took place, even without a criminal charge.</p><h2>A gap in state law</h2><p>Bodywork covers touch-based treatments that fall outside the state’s massage therapy license. The draft lists 23 accepted practices, including shiatsu, acupressure, Reiki, Thai bodywork and Ayurvedic medicine. <a href="https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-massage-therapy">State guidance on massage therapy law</a> says local boards of health may regulate those fields.</p><p>The draft’s purpose statement says people in the industry “commonly identify themselves as bodyworkers” to avoid the state’s massage therapy rules. The board would act under its <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXVI/Chapter111/Section31">power to make “reasonable health regulations”</a> under state law.</p><p>The Division of Public Health would issue permits, and the city’s commissioner of Health and Human Services and public health director would approve applications and certifications. Antanavica said Inspectional Services would carry out inspections. The draft also lets agents from his department, the Worcester Police Department and the city’s Quality of Life Task Force suspend a permit on the spot.</p><p>Staff borrowed from regulations in Oxford, Framingham and other communities. “Plagiarism is the best form of compliment, I guess,” Antanavica said.</p><h2>Who could get a permit</h2><p>Owners and practitioners would have to be at least 21. Both would submit criminal record and sex offender registry checks, and owners would have to keep a manager with a practitioner permit on site during business hours.</p><p>For establishment applicants, the draft disqualifies anyone with a conviction for a sex-related offense or felony against a person in the past 10 years, any misdemeanor or felony conviction in the past five years, or a prior bodywork license revocation. The practitioner section requires applicants to disclose the same history but does not list it as disqualifying.</p><p>Practitioners would need national certification from groups such as the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia or the American Reflexology Certification Board. They would also need a letter from a Massachusetts physician, dated within six months, confirming a physical exam, current adult vaccinations and no communicable disease, plus tuberculosis screening when a doctor calls for it.</p><p>At least one CPR-certified person would have to be on site whenever a business is open. A business without one would face immediate suspension. Antanavica had described CPR certification as a requirement for every practitioner.</p><p>Antanavica told the board practitioners could work at more than one location. One section of the draft limits practitioners to the establishment listed on their permit, while another lets them work at other Worcester locations with no added fee.</p><h2>Rules inside the business</h2><p>Businesses could open only from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. By comparison, <a href="https://plymouth-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1905/Body-Work-Bylaw-PDF">Plymouth’s bodywork bylaw</a> allows treatment until 10 p.m.</p><p>Treatment rooms would need at least 70 square feet and doors that cannot lock. The front door would stay unlocked during business hours, with side and rear doors reserved for employees.</p><p>Nobody could sleep or live at a business. Owners would have to remove any shower or household items that would let employees live on site before the business could reopen.</p><p>The draft bans blackout curtains, window sprays and posters that block windows or doors. New businesses would need a waiting area open to the public.</p><p>“There shouldn’t be anything happening in a front room that needs to be hidden anyways,” Antanavica said.</p><p>He told the board every treatment room would have a hand-washing sink. The draft requires at least one sink near the treatment rooms.</p><p>The draft also bans all latex products. <a href="https://www.webster-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/25463">Webster’s regulations</a> allow latex with a warning sign. It bars items “of sexual nature” from the premises and stock photos from advertising. Businesses would record each client’s name, address and date of birth and hand over those records on request or face suspension.</p><p>Clients would have to show proof they are at least 18. Practitioners could not work from a home, condominium, hotel or motel.</p><h2>Enforcement</h2><p>Inspectors would make at least two unannounced visits a year. Turning an inspector away would bring immediate revocation under the inspection section, though another section calls for “suspension or revocation.”</p><p>The board could permanently revoke a permit after finding at a hearing that a criminal act occurred. The draft sets the standard at a “preponderance of the evidence” and requires no criminal charge or conviction.</p><p>Using an alias, exposing a client, treating a minor or letting anyone sleep on site would cost an establishment its permit. The practitioner involved would also lose their permit and could never reapply in Worcester.</p><p>Permit holders would have seven days to report any criminal complaint against them. Permits would expire each Dec. 31. Existing businesses would have 30 days to apply once the rules pass or face immediate closure.</p><h2>Postings beyond spas</h2><p>The draft requires the State Department’s <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/temporary-workers.html">Know Your Rights pamphlet</a> in each employee’s primary language. That section applies to “any place of employment” considered a common site of human trafficking and names hotels, nail salons, restaurants, bars, strip clubs, farm labor camps, construction companies and large factories alongside bodywork businesses.</p><p>The board could add business types to that list. Antanavica’s presentation discussed the postings only for bodywork businesses.</p><h2>Board questions</h2><p>Board member Patrick Lowe asked what help people identified as trafficking victims would receive. Antanavica said his department is setting protocols with community partners and police but has no written plan yet.</p><p>“We don’t just walk in and go, oh, you’re saved. Go in peace. That’s not how this works,” he said.</p><p>Lowe also asked staff to consider a general sanitation and safety credential, similar to ServSafe in food and alcohol service. Board member Michael Perotto asked about capping the number of businesses.</p><p>“I don’t know how we can cap something when we don’t know the full aspect of what it is,” Antanavica said.</p><p>Chair Frances Anthes compared the plan to the state’s earlier use of licensing to bring sham massage parlors in line with the law.</p><p>The city Law Department is reviewing the draft. Antanavica said staff hope to release a final version for public comment in January, seek a board vote in February and put the rules into effect in March.</p><p>He plans to return at the board’s next meeting, Monday, Dec. 14. Public hearing notices appear on the <a href="https://www.worcesterma.gov/public-health/board-of-health">Board of Health website</a>.</p></div></body>

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Worcester would license bodywork businesses and their workers for the first time under draft rules that the city’s top inspector says target human trafficking at an estimated 25 to 30 illicit spas. Nicholas Antanavica, commissioner of Inspectional Services, walked the Board of Health through the proposal Monday, Nov. 9....

Worcester draft bodywork rules target trafficking, limit spa hours

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Worcester would license bodywork businesses and their workers for the first time under draft rules that the city’s top inspector says target human traffick

Worcester draft bodywork rules target trafficking, limit spa hours

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