JOHANNESBURG, Feb 6 (AFP) - South African doctors are testing the HIV status of workers without their knowledge or consent and revealing it to their employers, AIDS activists said Tuesday, calling for disciplinary action against them.

Some workers were fired after their tests came up positive, the Star newspaper reported.

The Johannesburg-based AIDS Law Project has referred 28 such complaints to the Health Professions Council since 1996, but the council has not yet found any doctor guilty of professional misconduct in this regard, it said.

The powerful South African Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU), which represents some 1.8 million workers, urged those affected to file lawsuits.

"We are afraid that a number of people will be exposed and that will lead to a situation where the community isolates them and they will be hunted out of their jobs because of their HIV status," COSATU spokesman Siphiwe Mcgina said in a statement Tuesday.

"We urge all affected patients to file lawsuits against doctors who have violated their rights. This should be regarded as a serious offence," Mcgina added, emphasising patients' legal right to privacy.

Health Professionals Council spokeswoman Thola Nzuza told AFP the council was investigating the complaints from the AIDS Law Project and confirmed that it had received similar complaints in the past.

"We are in the process of trying to expedite these cases as they involve people who may be terminally ill," she said.

Some patients have won civil claims against doctors -- of up to 100,000 rand (12,800 dollars/13,700 euros) -- even though the council deemed the doctors not guilty, the Star reported.

In more than one-third of the cases, several involving domestic workers, the patients were believed to have died before the council had ruled on their complaints, it said.

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