Massage Therapists Caught In The Crossfire
“Facing possible ‘shutdown,’ NC massage therapists push back against new state rules” – ABC11 Joel Brown
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By Fall or Early Spring 2018 Massage Therapists and Massage Therapy Businesses will be subject to new rules. We are currently in the process of rules review and all rules have not been decided on by the board. However, there are a significant number of rules proposed that will greatly impact the massage therapy profession as they are currently written and being proposed to be voted on by massage therapists and the public. A few points of significance to note:
- Even if the room size issue is reconsidered, be VERY CAREFUL about any Grandfathering. As a small business, we may one day want to transfer our lease or sell our suite to another massage therapist. Unless room size is struck from the proposed rules or severly reduced, ALL THERAPISTS will be affected. The Establishment License will not be transferrable to new ownership. This means that if you’re grandfathered in because your room is smaller than the rules, the new owner will have to move the business elsewhere. Clients do not like moving and they will consider it a new practice altogether. This may not be the case if the new owner taking over had been a part of the practice for years before buying.
- Human Trafficking is big, it’s bad, it’s ugly and it is degrading our humanity. Massage therapists support many efforts that are currently in play to push human traffickers out of this state and out of this country and off this Earth. Our industry is greatly affected by labor trafficking. Massage parlors might get supressed by this new law but there is weakness in the law by way of people opening Foot Soak businesses, you name it you fake it named businesses that advertise as Reflexology. Reflexology traditionally is legitimate pressure point touch to hands and feet. It has been appropriated by those who under pay, under report their workers, and some of them even buy their workers from the criminal networks. These places are grooming the general public to get used to unlicensed massage by just calling it by another name. At this time Reflexology is a LOOPHOLE in our law and it allows these parties to remain in play. Not every one of them is involved in a criminal network but the closer you get to the edges, the closer you are to risking labor abuse.