An erotic model sues a studio for labor abuse: “They are afraid that the girls will no longer keep quiet”

The pandemic left Lina*, who was 28 years old at the time, without a job. During the search for a new source of income, a friend of hers persuaded her to try herself as a webcam model in a studio located in Bogotá. Although her proposal raised concerns, it was not enough to rule it out. The studio supplied the location, with the video cameras, microphones and other props. Lina connected daily to a platform, she chatted with users who entered her room —as the individual transmission of a model is called— and made a presentation, for which he received payments in dollars. 60% of his income was his, which amounted to 600,000 pesos (about $150) per week, and the rest belonged to the studio. Everything was going well until a family emergency came knocking on his door and he had to quit. Going back to work was not easy.

He tried to return to the studio, but there were no spaces. She turned to the internet in hopes of finding alternatives. “I opened Google and found out where else I could webcam. The first link that appeared to me redirected to a page that had the seal of the Federation of Electronic Commerce for Adults (Fencea). That gave me peace of mind and I called,” she says. To join Fencea, which unites and represents different industry players before government entities, studies must pass several filters, including quality evaluations.

He remembers that he scheduled an appointment and punctually arrived at the location, in the Patria neighborhood, north of the Colombian capital. She was shocked that a man attended to her, because in the previous study there were only women. She was interviewed and almost all the questions revolved around her sexual preferences, a common practice in the industry, according to what she tells EL PAÍS, to know what type of audience a model can be profiled with to obtain better returns. She toured the facilities and noticed that the walls of some rooms had security cameras: someone other than the users of the platforms could see her naked. In any case, in February 2021, she signed a mandate contract – which excludes the payment of social benefits and other labor rights – with the studio, Digitech Media SAS.

Her first day was marked by the strict schedule. There was not enough time to put on makeup before starting her work or to wash her sex toys after using them. The high number of models forced them to share the rooms, leading them to delay returning home because they had to clean — with toiletries that they paid for out of their own pockets — the space before giving it up. Lina says that she asked what she should do to have her own room and that Raúl Ardila, manager of Digitech Media, answered that, at least, work nine hours a day, with only one day of rest a week. She agreed.

The agreement was well received and other colleagues wanted to replicate it. Seeing this, Ardila and Eduardo Sarmiento, a partner in the study, created an incentive program to increase productivity. “If we worked nine hours for six days, we were guaranteed an additional 3% on our earnings. If we worked seven days a week, they gave us another 3%. And so on. There was an improvement bonus for which we were recognized a significant percentage if we surpassed our best mark. There were many possibilities to increase profits,” recalls Lina.

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She decided to aim for the greatest stimulus: transmit 12 hours a day for six days, to receive 12% more. She met the goal and surpassed her own numbers, but she says that at the time of payment she was given less money than expected. She filed a claim and got some of her receipts adjusted, but she was never credited with all of what she alleges she was owed. Several of her classmates shared her discontent. “I saw them very frustrated. They told me that if these injustices were committed against me, who was the one who performed the most, what other abuses they could not suffer.”

The grievances grew. Lina maintains that a few weeks later she discovered that the studio had a software who regularly took screenshots of his streams to keep track of how many hours he worked. He still does not know where these images went. He asserts that, as a result of his complaints, Raúl Ardila made an effort to hinder his work. He constantly called her into her office, leaving her with no choice but to stop her transmission, to ask her baseless questions, such as berating her for not working during her day off or interrogating her for alleged late arrivals that, he says, never happened. they occurred.

In June 2021, he tested positive for coronavirus and was absent from the study for two weeks. When he returned he found out that they had deactivated his account on Streamate —platform from which she transmitted—, preventing her followers from purchasing the content she had enabled there, and falsifying her signature to register her as an independent worker with social security. “They harmed me because, although she was sick, she had the possibility of making some money. I don’t know why they did it about the affiliation,” she confesses.

Tired of the environment, she requested a transfer to another studio headquarters, located in Teusaquillo, near the center of Bogotá. She admits that her main motivation was to avoid Ardila. However, five months later, he was appointed administrator of that headquarters and, among his first decisions, was to eliminate the red days, two days of leave that were granted to models for their menstruation. Since then, if a model took these days, she had to make them up later.

Lina assures that her health has declined. She suffered episodes of anxiety and went to a psychologist. “I was exhausted, back to nothing. One night, after many hours of streaming, I decided to lie down for a while. I woke up at 24 hours. “I had never slept a day in a row in my life.”

Her weakness, coupled with arbitrary fines that came later, convinced her to seek legal advice. She requested a copy of the mandate contract that she had signed months ago, but it was sent to her incomplete. One issue did not suit her, she says: although she signed the contract with Digitech Media, in the studio’s facilities and documents she saw the logo of another company, MVC Studios. She investigated and found a website with testimonies from dozens of models who accuse Eduardo Sarmiento and MVC of ignoring their labor rights. Lina submitted her resignation and sued MVC.

Angélica Valencia, her lawyer and member of the Feminist Legal Network, points out that Lina’s right to dignity was violated. She adds that, although the studio made her sign a mandate contract to try to avoid future responsibilities, there was an employment relationship. “Although webcam models have a margin of autonomy because they decide what they do to satisfy their clients’ requests and have flexibility in their schedule, for the majority of these people, and in the specific case of Lina, this did not happen. If she missed a schedule, she ran the risk of not being paid or fined, conditions that were not in the mandate contract she signed. There was subordination because she received orders and she had to follow them. The work elements and rooms were provided by the owners of these studios,” she emphasizes.

EL PAÍS contacted Fencea, which sent a response through its communications team. The union denies knowledge of the case and states that in the coming weeks it will hold its associate assembly, in which it will begin the respective investigation process. For his part, Eduardo Sarmiento, partner of Digitech and MVC, explains that he is not giving interviews to the media due to “the absence of regulation and the opportunism of many people to affirm realities that are not supported,” and Raúl Ardila does not answer calls and messages.

The discussion about webcam modeling and the rights of its workers is neither new nor marginal. In Congress he is presenting a bill, supported by the Government bench, to regulate this profession and provide Fencea with the ability to inspect, monitor and control the studios. Figures of the Latin American Adult Business Exposition (Lalexpo) indicate that in the country there are more than 5,000 studios, which employ 150,000 people, including models and administrative staff, and move around 600,000 million dollars a year.

Lina chose to settle the lawsuit she filed. “I preferred that they give me some money, instead of dragging this out. “I decided to tell my experience.” Today she works in another webcam studio, managed by a friend, and she acknowledges that she has received support and expressions of solidarity from other models. She invites them to take a step forward and report any abuse. “Studies are afraid that girls will no longer keep quiet,” she warns.

*Name changed to preserve privacy.

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