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June 25, 2001
AIDS Code Proposed for Employers
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The Geneva, Switzerland-based International Labor Organization was expected to approve the code on Friday, then offer it to the UN General Assembly at a special meeting on AIDS that begins today in New York, according to The New York Times.
ILO officials told the Times that they expected the policy to contain proposals for providing benefits to AIDS victims and their families.
Juan Somavia, the Chilean human rights lawyer and former diplomat who is now director general of the ILO, called the code a "comprehensive blueprint for workplace policy on AIDS."
International AIDS experts have called it essential to deal with the effects of the epidemic in offices, factories, and even informal work sites for economic as well as medical and social reasons, the Times reports.
At least 23 million people between 15 and 49 are infected with the virus, Somavia told the Times. "AIDS is not only a workplace issue but also a challenge to development worldwide," he said.
Attitudes toward AIDS vary widely around the world. In Thailand, concern about it in the military has helped propel effective government policies. But in India, officials have decided that soldiers who test positive will be dismissed and that the disease, therefore, does not exist in the armed forces - an assertion Indian and international AIDS experts reject.
The ILO code, directed at governments, employers and workers' organizations, proposes a number of rights. Among them:
- "There is no justification for asking job applicants or workers to disclose HIV-related personal information."
- "HIV infection is not a cause for termination of employment."
- "All workers, including workers with HIV, are entitled to affordable health services."
The policy urges governments to ensure that national laws governing benefits in time of illness are fully extended to HIV patients, according to the Times.
In addition, it says labor laws should be revised where necessary to deal with the disease, with grievance procedures instituted in places of work and disciplinary measures brought against anyone discriminating against an employee with HIV.
Prevention is considered an essential part of a workplace program in the new code. "To support behavioral change by individuals," it says, "employers should also make available, where appropriate, male and female condoms, counseling, care support and referral services."
Employers are asked to train workers who may come in contact with blood or other body fluids in what are called the "universal precautions" to protect the uninfected. Those measures, devised in 1985 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, teach self-protection and the handling of possibly contaminated materials.
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