What would your reaction be if a co-worker, who is also your close friend, reveals to you that they have HIV/Aids?
While people in T&T have made immense strides in the way that they treat people who are HIV positive in the workplace, there is still a lot of room for improvement, according to the experts at the National HIV/AIDS Workplace Advocacy and Sustainability Centre (HASC).
The unit was formed by the Ministry of Labour in 2009 and pays special attention to an International Labour Organisation initiative to get companies involved in understanding HIV/AIDS.
“Primarily in the workplace, people living with HIV have challenges with discrimination in the workplace, either by co-workers, not getting hired or possibly getting fired for their status,” said manager Tania Parrott during an interview at HASC office, Duke Street, Port-of-Spain.
Many people who are infected still face discrimination at work because of a lack of education. This is why HASC visits workplaces throughout the country to try and create a supportive environment for those infected.
When they started educating people about HIV a lot of them did not understand the disease. She shared a story where one worker broke down because she had been treating a family member horribly due to her ignorance, she had been separating her relative’s cutlery and other items from the rest of the family. To get people to truly understand the disease HASC has someone who is currently coping with HIV come in and share their personal experience with workers.
“There are a lot of myths and misconceptions out there still and our sessions are hopefully dispelling some of these myths. There is still a long way to go because we only work with a few organisations, so we’re just a grain of sand in the whole workspace response.”
They have already convinced about 25 companies, from both the private and public sector, to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that the rights of HIV-infected workers are protected. It’s not just in the workplace that employees may have issues with the disease and a clause in the MOU asks employers to accommodate a worker who has to care for a close relative with HIV.
The organisation has even worked with maxi-taxi drivers of Route one (Diego Martin, Petit Valley, Carenage) and Route three (Curepe, Chaguanas, South and Caparo).
Salim October, an HIV/Aids Advocacy Officer of HASC, who was also present at the interview said HASC’s work is primarily focused on policy development for the HIV and Aids National Workplace Policy.
“Our department draws from ILO’s guidance, specifically the ILO recommendation 200 which was based on new developments on the international HIV front and issues related to HIV in the workplace,” he said.
People living with the disease should not be ostracised in any way and should be included in all company benefits including insurance plans. This is because there is no evidence to suggest that covering a person with HIV will increase claim rates.
Parrott said even though there is so much knowledge about the disease there is still no legislation that really protects the rights of a worker with HIV.
According to the executive director of the Employees Consultative Agency and a member of the HIV Interim Agency, Linda Besson, this is because the issues surrounding HIV/Aids are now on the back burner.
“In the period 2004 to 2008/9 there was a lot of hype about HIV/Aids in the workplace not just in Trinidad but regionally because the Caribbean Employers Federation and the Caribbean Congress of Labour worked together in eliminating the stigma of discrimination. My feeling, however, is that within the last couple of years it has not been in the forefront as it used to be,” she said during an interview at the ECA office in Aranguez.
“There has been a draft policy for some time and I think the current government is revising it. That has been long, long overdue and they have allowed the issue to get very cold and we are trying to bring this back up.”
She said the only law that may protect employees from being dismissed based on their HIV status is the Equal Opportunities Act. Another step in the right direction is the Employee Assistant Programmes which many companies have now set up to help people gain access to counseling.
She may be an advocate for the proper treatment of people living with the disease but Besson admitted that she is not a fan of World Aids Day.
“I have a problem that we only talk about HIV in this manner on this one day and there are 365 days in a year. There should be much more sensitisation. It’s great that we have that day but what she should be aiming for is zero tolerance. We must keep it on the front burner. If we want a healthy nation let us be pro-active not reactive.”
As a man living with the disease for more than 20 years, David Soomarie, coordinator of the Community Action Resource (Care), also believes a lot more can be done to help people living with HIV/Aids. He revealed that when he was diagnosed, he ignored it for some years until he had a life threatening seizure. He discovered Care which opened his eyes to the fact that a person can have HIV and live a long, healthy life.
“I think discrimination still exists. Depending on where you go and who you talk to, people still have some misconceptions. People still think you can get from mosquitoes or sharing a cup with a co-worker or from hugging someone or giving someone a kiss. We have made some headway but there are some challenges particularly among our key populations which are men who have sex with men, young people, people who use drugs and sex workers,” he said while speaking from Care’s office on the Eastern Main Road, Barataria.
Care is celebrating its 25th anniversary and has helped thousands of HIV positive people but he believes many more people could be helped if education efforts were ramped up.
He said that more men in particular need to get tested because they have a tendency to shy away from medical care.
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According to statistics from 2012 there are 22,085 persons who have been diagnosed with HIV in T&T.
Unaids recently set a 90 per cent target for 2020 for people living with HIV. They hope that by 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression. To achieve this goal in T&T at least 500,000 people will have to be tested a year for the next three years. As of 2013 only four per cent of T&T’s population had been tested.