THE GOVERNMENT is to commission a survey next year to measure the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the Jamaican workforce.There is no information in Jamaica and the West Indies about the impact of HIV/AIDS on the workplace," Neville Moodie, director of the Industrial Safety Department in the Ministry of Labour told The Sunday Gleaner. "The Ministry of Labour in conjunction with the Jamaica HIV programme will be conducting research to determine what economic and social impact the HIV/AIDS epidemic has on the Jamaican workplace and workers and this will be done in the coming fiscal year."
Ministry of Health data on the epidemic is not specific to any sector, but the data indicate that 54 per cent of the newly reported HIV/AIDS cases in 2003 were persons between the ages 20 to 39 years, an age cohort, which normally represents the working population.
A breakdown of the figures show that 34 per cent of all newly reported HIV/AIDS cases were in the age group 30 to 39 years while the other 20 per cent were in the age group 20 to 29 years.
However, according, to Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, executive director of the Jamaica Employers Federation (JEF), "We have not yet seen a major impact." She predicted though, that if the country fails to slow the rate of HIV/AIDS infection, in the future the impact would be great.
A 1998 study by the University of the West Indies noted that as the number of individuals infected continue to spiral, the Jamaican labour force will be transformed from a productive one contributing to economic growth to a dependent one demanding resources to address care and treatment. The study projected that growth in savings will fall by over 23 per cent, growth in investment by just over 17 per cent and growth in GDP projected to fall by just over six per cent.
KEY PRINCIPLES
Meanwhile, Mr. Moodie said that the ministry had so far developed a National HIV/AIDS Workplace Policy, which received the seal of approval from the Human Resource Committee (HRC) of Cabinet and will be presented to Parliament next year. The policy, he said is based on the 10 principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) code of practice. The key principles, he said, included recognition of HIV/AIDS as a workplace issue and that it should be treated like any serious illness/condition in the workplace and the encouragement of non-discrimination against workers on the basis of real or perceived HIV status.
Other principles include the recognition of the gender dimension of HIV/AIDS and therefore equal gender relations and the empowerment of women was vital to successfully preventing the spread of HIV infection.
The code also supports that HIV/AIDS screening should not be required of job applicants or persons in employment and that confidentiality was essential. The code states that personal data relating to worker's HIV status should be bound by the rules of confidentiality, consistent with the ILO's code of practice on the protection of workers' personal data. Mr. Moodie said that when approved by Parliament, the policy should be implemented in the workplace. Mrs. Coke-Lloyd said that already, the JEF has trained some 150 companies in developing policies relating to HIV/AIDS and will be training another 300 next year.
