Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Employers' Federation's (JEF) stance on testing for HIV/AIDS in the workplace has come under fire from the government body mandated to tackle the disease.

Yesterday, the Government's National AIDS Committee (NAC) said JEF Executive Director Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd's claim that employers reserved the right to test for AIDS would set back the national fight against the virus "by many years."

Discriminatory

Vivian Gray, NAC advocacy officer, told The Gleaner yesterday that Government should ban mandatory testing because of concerns that it could be used to screen potential employees, a recommendation the committee made in June to the parliamentary committee looking at the establishment of a charter of rights and freedoms for the nation.

"The Jamaican society needs to wake up," Mr. Gray said. "Every day, someone walks into my office saying that they've been fired or their landlord has thrown them out and he has no recourse because there is policy only and no law."

He said his office would continue in such cases to refer those persons to a team of attorneys who have committed themselves to providing free legal services via the Ministry of Health.

Mrs. Coke-Lloyd, while not insisting that employers should demand HIV/AIDS testing, on Tuesday emphasised that employers should reserve this right for several reasons, including for health coverage.

Confidential

"What we should maintain is that, if at all they (employers) do test, then it should remain confidential," she added.

Dr. Alverston Bailey, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica, brought the issue back into the foreground during a presentation, at a forum on the weekend, in which he said it was wrong for employers to test staff for HIV/AIDS.

Abner Mason, former HIV/AIDS adviser to United States President George Bush and executive director of the AIDS Responsibility Project (ARP), which was one of the consultants to a local council among businesses to tackle AIDS discrimination in the workplace, said yesterday that he supported testing as long as privacy is protected.

"One of the biggest problems we have, even here in Jamaica, is that of the (estimated) 25,000 people infected some 60 per cent of them don't know they're infected so the likelihood of people taking steps to protect themselves and the people they're with is not nearly as good without them knowing their status," said Mr. Mason.

He was speaking during a courtesy call on City of Kingston (COK) Credit Union headquarters in Kingston. COK is one of 22 businesses to have joined the council.

In a report conducted by the ARP, which led to the formation of the council known as the National Business HIV/AIDS Council, 13 per cent of respondents in a survey of 23 local companies representing 23,000 workers, said they would not employ persons with HIV/AIDS. Sixty two per cent of companies surveyed also had no HIV/AIDS employment policy.

According to Mr. Mason, an ultimate goal of the council is for every company to have such a policy.

We want to hear from you!

What's your view on the testing of workers for HIV/AIDS? Send your views to: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223.

Limit responses to no more than 300 words.