Book Finds Business Too Often Ignores Growing Impact of AIDS on the Work Force

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Book Finds Business Too Often Ignores Growing Impact of AIDS on the Work Force

Baltimore Sun (10/15/93) P. 1E
Shapiro, Stephanie)

Earl C. Pike, author of "We Are All Living with AIDS: How You Can Set Policies and Guidelines for the Workplace," says that American businesses have too often opted to ignore the legal and moral issues posed by the epidemic. Large and small companies alike must develop sensitive and practical policies for dealing with the disease, asserts Pike, who is AIDS coordinator for the Minnesota Human Services Department. The disease is increasingly affecting the labor force in its prime productive years, Pike discloses, but medical advances now help AIDS patients survive longer, which prolongs their ability to continue working. Pike, as well as other activists, insist that companies must comply with the law-- particularly the Americans With Disabilities Act--as well as protect employee privacy, incorporate education programs, and offer prevention techniques. National corporations such as Levi Strauss, IBM, and Time Warner have already established formal AIDS workplace strategies. President Clinton's recent mandate that all federal agency employees receive AIDS and HIV education has sent an important message to the private sector, says Patrick May of the National Leadership Coalition on AIDS. But, says May, policies need to consider sensitive issues surrounding the disease as well as the legal ones. "If you really want to deal with the HIV [crisis] in a way so that it couldn't happen again, you have to deal with underlying issues such as sexuality and homophobia," he asserts.

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