Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Employers' Feder-ation (JEF) yesterday insisted on the right of employers to demand that workers undergo HIV/AIDS tests as a condition of employment.

According to Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, executive director of the JEF, the employer reserves the right to test for several reasons, including the company's health coverage.

"I think what we should spend time on is what people do with the information that they get," Mrs. Coke-Lloyd told The Gleaner yesterday.

She was responding to the demands of Dr. Alverston Bailey, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), who on the weekend said employers should not test workers for HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Bailey, speaking at a public forum in St. Ann on Saturday, described the testing of workers by employers as "inappropriate, unethical and unfair to workers."

Unions against practice

The testing of employees has also met with strong opposition from Senator Dwight Nelson, president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU).

Mr. Nelson told The Gleaner yesterday that the confederation is now aware that a number of large corporations in Jamaica have, as one of their policies, compulsory testing for HIV/AIDS.

"This is wrong, and I personally intend, as soon as Parliament resumes, to bring a resolution calling on Government to amend the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act to prevent discrimination against employment based on illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, sexual harassment and religion."

Mr. Nelson stressed that, under the International Labour Organisation's (ILO's) code of conduct, compulsory testing is unethical, ineffective, and must be prohibited.

But, noting that the JEF upholds the ILO's code of conduct, Mrs. Coke-Lloyd said: "What we also maintain is that, if at all they (employers) do test, then it should remain confidential."

When asked if she felt testing was a violation of employee rights, Mrs. Coke-Lloyd said that, as far as the JEF was aware, there were no laws that prevent it.

"But what you could look at is discrimination. I think discrimination speaks to what you do with the information that you have," she said. The JEF head, however, stressed that the federation was against any discrimination by an employer to workers who have the virus.