Seeking Advice on Creating an HR Policy for HIV-Infected and Affected Employees

Dear Team,

We are in the process of framing a policy on HIV mainstreaming (External and Internal). For HR, we will take care of internal mainstreaming. Is there anybody who already has a policy in place or anybody who knows somebody who has an HR policy for HIV-infected and affected employees? Please help.

Warmly,
Hena

Hi,

Only very few companies have policies for HIV. I don't think it will be fruitful to have a policy on such issues. Rather, when recruiting, instruct the candidates to undergo compulsory medical check-ups and conduct all kinds of tests, including HIV tests, etc. Also, educate them by conducting periodic awareness programs, displaying banners, pamphlets in a prominent place in your company, and try to create awareness. This way, you can move forward. Policies are only for private issues within your company. These issues are public issues, so I think a policy will not work for this.

Regards,
R. Devarajan

Dear Hena,

You can get the guidelines on HIV policy at the workplace from the International Labour Organization (ILO) website as follows: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/pr.../workcover.pdf. Even our company is using it as the basis for our policy. I hope this will help.

Contrary to what Mr. Deva said, it is very useful indeed to have such a policy in our organization. A screening test is only useful for new intakes, but what happens if current employees get infected? This is when the policy will come in handy.

Best Regards,
Ad

Hi Hena,

It is definitely required for all organizations to have a workplace policy on HIV/AIDS. The first place to start would be the ILO guidelines. My organization (an INGO) has an Illness Policy which also covers HIV. The main principle in this is - 'non-discrimination'. We do not ask prospective employees to get tested for HIV as that amounts to discrimination. Other aspects include training and awareness generation, provision of PEP (Post-exposure prophylaxis) to those exposed to HIV in the course of work, etc.

There is a lot of information available on this on the web that you could search for. Do feel free to write to me for any further queries that you might have.

Regards,
Indrani
(indrani.mukerjee@concern.net)

Dear Ad & Indrani,

Thank you so much for your reply. We have undergone a 2-day all-staff training on HIV/AIDS and downloaded the ILO code. In the process of writing the policy for the staff who are affected & infected by AIDS & HIV.

I shall write back to you soon.

Warm Regards,
Hena