Sydney Agency article part 2
Graham likens the contracts to insurance policies. He says the agreements -- drafted with the aid of a top Sydney agent and an entertainment lawyer -- are necessary to prevent millionaire clients whisking girls away from the agency, often only to dump them months later. "If something is so valuable that people are trying to steal it, you have to protect it," Graham says. "It costs me hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to find these women. As soon as a new girl starts here, every man and his dog preys on her. "We got to the stage where, after three or four weeks, the girls were leaving and we didn't know why. We hired private detectives and found the girls would go off with particular clients. "We go to all this trouble to introduce these girls and a guy says 'I'm in love with you, I want to marry you' and we say 'make us an offer'. "We give half the money to the girl so if he dumps her she has something to fall back on. We've reached this stage to protect ourselves and our girls."
Graham introduced the client contracts 12 months ago and says smaller agencies do not insist on such agreements because they don't have as much to lose. "If you are in the business of $200anhour girls there is not much there to protect," Graham says. "Nobody is doing it at this level basically because they have decided to stick to the $200 market. "We search high and low for these girls, we train them, market them, create internet sites for them. We're striving to create a different standard." And it's not just the customers who are subjected to strict contract guidelines. Miss Fleiss girls must agree to a list of demands before they can join Sydney's premier prostitution ranks. They are aware from the beginning that the agency "will be from time to time enlisting the services of a private investigation firm to conduct false bookings" to keep check on work performance. The ladies suffer a $250 deduction from their hourly rate if they are late for bookings, intoxicated or involved in substance abuse.
Arriving for a job without the proper attire and equipment -- including "two sets of lingerie, three fantasy outfits, black leather gloves and tea light candles" -- incurs a $150 fine. "We started off having a small contract for the girls," Graham says. "As we've gone on in time, the contract we have now is an agency agreement similar to that which an actor would sign. These girls are entertainers. Sex is just a byproduct of what they do." In spite of the greater levels of responsibility such contracts place on both worker and client, the escort industry is big business in Australia and getting bigger. It is one of the reasons Graham is fiercely protective of his girls, many of whom come to him from the centrefold pages of men's magazines and modelling agencies without prior experience as sex workers. "These girls have never worked in the industry before, in this career; but because it is being so professionally organised now, they are willing to come into it, as long as the security is there," he says.
Life for the "highclass glamour" is totally different to the widespread perceptions of the industry, according to Graham.