The Workplace: Testing at Recruitment and Mandatory Testing During Employment

• Pages: 51-53

Contenidos

• The Issue.
• Legal and Policy Considerations.
• Practice Examples.
• References.

Page 51

The Issue

Discrimination in the workplace may present a substantial obstacle to persons living with HIV securing and maintaining employment. Despite laws in many countries prohibiting the use of HIV testing to discriminate against persons living with HIV, discrimination based upon HIV status continues to occur in the workplace. Some employers harbor misconceptions about the routes of HIV transmission and fear increased HIV transmission within their workplace, while others fear increased costs, including health care and insurance costs and expenses to accommodate employees living with HIV. Most persons living with HIV can work normally or with minimal accommodations. Yet, many employers insist on using HIV testing requirements to screen potential employees during the hiring process and to eliminate HIV-infected employees from their workforce.

Legal and Policy Considerations

Laws and policies in many countries restrict employers from testing potential or current employees for HIV. These laws and policies take several forms-some proscribe mandatory HIV testing during recruiting, employment, or both. One common approach adopted in many laws prohibits mandatory HIV testing from the beginning of the hiring process throughout the employee's tenure at the work-place. With these protections in place, employees cannot be compelled to undergo HIV testing at any time without their consent. Moreover, test results or the failure to undergo testing cannot be used as a basis for denying employment, promotion, training, or benefits to an employee. The ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work supports this position, stating: "HIV testing should not be required at the time of recruitment or as a condition of continued employment." Another approach provides even more privacy protection: forbidding HIV testing of applicants during recruiting even with their informed consent. This strong prohibition on HIV testing during recruitment recognizes that informed consent given by prospective employees may, in fact, have elements of coercion. Most laws that address workplace testing permit HIV testing with informed consent.

Laws and policies that prohibit mandatory HIV testing in the workplace setting place a high value on protecting the privacy of job applicants and current employees, and seek to avoid discrimination and stigma in the workplace...