Imagine yourself as the chief executive or executive director of a company. Your human resource officer informs you that one of your employees has been diagnosed HIV-positive.
How will you react? What type of reaction do you expect from staff?
As a staff member of a large or small company, imagine you have just heard that one of those colleagues who is always absent from work is HIV positive. You may ask yourself some of these questions: Can I get the fatal disease by sharing a telephone with someone infected with the virus? Should all employees and new hires be required to take blood tests to show the possible presence of the HIV antibody?
Now let us say you have just been informed by your doctor that you are HIV positive? Among the questions that will run through your mind will probably be: Can I continue working? Do I need to notify my boss? Will my company fire me if they know? What are my rights?
Turmoil
As we celebrate World Aids Day today to remember the hundreds of thousands of South Africans who have passed on because of the disease and the millions infected or affected by this disease, let us not forget that as long as there have been people living with HIV/Aids, there have been people working with the disease – some openly, some discreetly, and some in situations so uncomfortable they can throw an entire work force into turmoil.
The spread of this disease is affecting employee benefit plans and employers’ human resource policies. It is costing companies and the government billions of rands.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the majority of people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are between the ages of 20 and 45 and currently employed. Further, due to medical advances, people with HIV are living and working longer.
That means someone you know or employ, or an employee’s family member or close friend, may already be coping with HIV/Aids.
As with any infective, chronic illness, HIV/Aids may, can and will affect your business in many crucial ways: insurance and health care costs; productivity; work disruption; customer concerns; employee morale; legal considerations; confidentiality and privacy; discrimination concerns; disability requirements; and job movement and promotions.
Like the chief executive, the human resources officer and staff member, dilemmas fuelled by the presence of HIV and Aids in the workplace can be as complicated as they are emotional. Decades after the HIV/Aids discussion moved into the workplace, employers and employees often find themselves unprepared to deal with the infected worker and apprehensive co-workers.
In a Harvard Business Review article “Aids is your Business” Sydney Rosen and her colleagues argue that because HIV, unlike most diseases, strikes those in their most productive years, if left unabated, it quickly begins to add to the costs of labour and to slow the growth rate of potential new markets.
With an appropriate level of alarm and impeccable research to back their claim, they declare: “Aids is destroying the twin rationales of globalisation strategy: cheap labour and fast growing markets” and should move every company doing global business to do something about it.
That is why companies and organisations should always prepare for the day when some of their employees could be HIV positive or have an advanced disease. Though anti-discrimination laws protect workers who are living with HIV/Aids, the potential for Aids-related problems in the workplace goes beyond the day to day dilemmas.
As the working population changes, the workplace also needs to adapt and create HIV-friendly policies for the workplace.
According to the WHO, HIV and Aids are the world’s leading infectious killers claiming to date more than 25 million lives. More than 6 million people in South Africa are infected with HIV.
The WHO says that an estimated 2 million people die every year from HIV /Aids and most of these deaths are in the productive age, hence every company should set up HIV policies which cater to the well-being of their employees. After all, if their employees are feeling good, if their employees are healthy, they’re going to be more productive.
While our region, sub-Saharan Africa, contains some 10 percent of the world’s population, it is home to more than 60 percent of people who have contracted the HIV virus, according to the UN. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) further notes that nine out of every ten of those living with HIV/Aids are adults in the prime of their working lives.
Major concern
In certain instances, steps towards an HIV/Aids policy and/or programme are taking place in our country’s workplaces; however, much remains to be done.
For me, it is obvious that HIV/Aids is or will become a major concern for businesses, large or small. Regardless of whether managers choose to confront the issues surrounding HIV/Aids directly, it is certain that most businesses will have to face these issues.
Businesses and companies taking a proactive approach to the disease will be much better prepared to deal with the issues that emerge when its employees contract or fall ill due to the virus.
Therefore, with Aids cutting a swath through Africa’s workforce, there is an urgent need for employers to adhere to policies that help HIV-positive staffers and ensure they are not victims of stigma.
To employees, employers and bosses, my advice is simple: The big thing is to try to maintain as much normalcy about the situation as possible.
Unfortunately in many countries, especially in our beloved rainbow nation, HIV employees do not have things easy. People living with HIV/Aids often face discrimination. Many African governments provide free HIV medication – but patients often have to take time off work to queue for hours at government facilities.
So what can employers, employees and bosses do to help stem the tide of the scourge?
Employers must make a stronger effort to provide educational and financial resources for workers with HIV/Aids.
In its Code of Practice on HIV/Aids and the World of Work, the ILO lays out ten principles to serve as a basis for workplace policy; these focus on issues such as discrimination against HIV-positive workers, adapting the workplace to meet the health needs of employees, and ensuring that those with the virus do not suffer termination of employment.
Indeed, dealing with the multi-faceted issues related to managing the impact of HIV in the workplace can be daunting for the employer and employees alike.
The first step in approaching the issues includes a thorough knowledge of the laws applicable to the employment of an HIV infected individual working knowledge of these laws and good legal counsel are imperative for today’s employers and employees, since failure to comply can lead to costly lawsuits.
As a general policy, employees with HIV/Aids should be treated the same as other employees with chronic conditions, such as those who have diabetes or are recovering from cancer.
Workplace issues
Policies should address workplace issues, such as educating employees concerning the nature of HIV/Aids, the requirements of discrimination laws, and the need to make reasonable accommodation; guaranteeing confidentiality and limited access to records; avoiding HIV screening as part of employment decisions; providing medical coverage for HIV/Aids victims; permitting employees with HIV to continue working as long as they can do the job; providing individual, family, and group counselling; and providing for individual case by case treatment of HIV and Aids patients.
At Aid for Aids we are asking our clients to develop their own policies and related programmes that are non-discriminatory, as well as a code of conduct to manage the pandemic, including discrimination and stigma and that all records of employees should be kept confidential.
HIV/Aids is still a health crisis in this century; it cannot be allowed to extend into the next.
Only through education and prevention at home, at work and everywhere can we stop the spread of the pandemic.
* Dr Funeka Bango is the executive director of Aid for Aids, a company committed to empowering corporates, medical schemes, funders and individuals develop winning strategies to ensure that HIV/Aids is well-managed and that those infected live productive lives.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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