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HIV/AIDS In The Workplace
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Highlight On AIDS In The Workplace:
By Tameka Lundy -
Nassau, Bahamas:



As the International Labour Organization [ILO] commends the Caribbean region for new programmes to root out workplace discrimination against HIV/AIDS infected persons, in The Bahamas trade union activists say they continue to try to educate employers and employees about how to deal with the situation.

However, a few of them admitted that there are no comprehensive, detailed policies, although it was something that they are working towards.

Recently, the ILO said new programmes designed to step up action against HIV/AIDS in the workplace are becoming increasingly common in the Caribbean.

It referred to five Caribbean states in particular: Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago for working with the ILO’s SHARE (Strategic HIV/AIDS Responses in Enterprises) project to put into place policies and programmes to address discrimination and behaviour change in and through the workplace.

According to the ILO’s report "Saving lives, protecting jobs," ministries of labour, as well as employers and workers and their organizations from the region, play leading roles in initiating action on HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

In The Bahamas, there appeared to have been less progress.

"At this point I am not aware of any policy that is in place, but I know that we are working on policies," said Stephanie Braynen, trustee with the National Congress of Trade Unions, one of two umbrella unions in the country.

Ms. Braynen is also on the union’s HIV/AIDS policy committee.

UNAIDS, in its 2007 report, stated that HIV prevalence reached or surpassed 1 percent in The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Most countries in the Caribbean region, it reported, showed declines or stabilization of HIV prevalence, primarily in urban areas, whereas changes in semi-urban and rural areas have been slight.

In The Bahamas, young persons ages 15 – 19 are the fastest growing group of persons contracting HIV, according to local statistics. Within that age group, females outnumber males 2:1 and with new HIV infections, the ratio is 3:1. For persons between the ages of 15-29, AIDS has become the leading cause of death.

"We are doing a whole lot of training [about HIV/AIDS]," said Ms. Braynen of the efforts of the NCTU.

"We are trying to educate the employers and employees about HIV and how it is actually transmitted, so that there would be no discrimination or stigma towards HIV positive people in the workplace."

The ILO has highlighted the progress made in the implementation of HIV workplace policies and programmes at the enterprise and national levels in the 24 countries.

In Barbados, several large corporations have pledged US$ 150,000 in-cash and in-kind to the AIDS Foundation for the next three years to build the capacity of the country’s business coalition responsible for coordinating the private sector response to HIV/AIDS in the country and to support companies in HIV workplace initiatives.

For Belize, the ILO highlighted that the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development is now playing a leading role in coordinating the workplace response as a result of the SHARE project. Working hand in hand with national partners, the project paved the way for the development of a national tripartite workplace policy on HIV and helped formulate the workplace components of the Belize National Policy on HIV/AIDS.

A key output of the project in Jamaica has been the successful transition from donor-funded activities to a national programme. The Ministry of Labour and social Security has developed a Voluntary HIV/OSH Workplace Compliance Programme managed by the Occupational Safety and Health Department that has scaled up the work of the ILO SHARE project.

Over 25 enterprises have signed up since the launch of the national programme in November 2007. In addition, the National Association of Hairdressers and Cosmetologists (NAHC) has sensitized 90 per cent of its 500 members to share information on HIV and AIDS and support behaviour change with clients and staff through peer education.

In addition, the report found a marked improvement in six pilot countries – Belize, Benin, Cambodia, Ghana, Guyana and Togo – over the last four years in attitudes of workers towards people living with HIV/AIDS.

The proportion of workers who reported supportive behaviour towards co-workers living with HIV rose from 49 per cent to 63 per cent on average during the life of the SHARE programme, according to the ILO.

In addition, the percentage of workers who reported using condoms with non-regular partners rose from 74 per cent to 84 per cent. In Belize, the proportion of workers who reported a positive attitude towards condom use increased from 52.7 per cent to 72 per cent.

John Pinder, president of the NCTU and head of the Bahamas Public Services Union, one of the largest trade unions in the country that represents government workers, acknowledged ILO programmes that have been crafted to deal with the rights of HIV infected persons.

"A number of our industrial agreements speak to the fact that there should be no discrimination against persons who are HIV positive," he said.

"The education process is an ongoing one to ensure that persons working in the workplace know the way in which HIV can be contracted …so we continuously educate workers on the fact that there is no need to discriminate against a person who is HIV positive."

HIV is having a devastating effect on the world of work. With 33.2 million people worldwide now living with the virus, the impact of the epidemic is being felt at all levels.

The majority of those infected are still working and in their most productive years, with skills and experience their families, workplace and country can ill afford to lose, according to the ILO.

But many are forced out of employment because of stigma and discrimination, or their working lives are cut short through lack of information about prevention, care and support.

May 26, 2008

May 29, 2008 | 7:55 AM Comments  0 comments

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