Miami Herald - Monday, December 5, 1994
Susana Barciela, Herald Staff

"Given the demographic numbers, it's my personal belief that there is no single school or work location that does not have at least one case of AIDS," says Pat Gray. In the early 1980s, he developed AIDS policies for South Florida's largest employer, the Dade County Public Schools.

So how does an employer forge a smart but humanitarian approach toward issues that, even in the aftermath of the seventh annual World AIDS Day last week, remain shrouded in anxiety?

"A lot of this is just common sense," says Patricia Lowry, a partner in the West Palm Beach office of the law firm Steel Hector & Davis. "Common sense tempered with kindness and fairness."

With about 30,000 employees, Dade's school system has known of more than 100 employees and 70 students who have come down with AIDS since 1982.

"Each case is unique," says Gray, associate superintendent, Bureau of Professional Standards. "Most employees wanted to work in their regular setting for as long as possible."

The law, particularly the Americans with Disabilities Act, dictates that employers be accommodating.

"You cannot treat an employee differently because he has AIDS," Lowry explains. "Every single thing about your workplace that could be considered a benefit or a privilege has to be equal."

For the School Board, that has meant offering employees with AIDS alternative jobs when they become unable to complete their regular duties. Usually, Gray says, the request comes from the employee, driven by a doctor's advice.

There are exceptions -- employers are not required to go to lengths that could be an "undue hardship." In practice, the accommodations might include reducing the work load, tolerating more absences, or offering flexible scheduling or work-at-home arrangements.

"You can eliminate some of your fears by sitting down with the individual and saying, 'How can we resolve the problem to meet both our needs,' " says Elizabeth du Frense, a senior partner at Steel Hector's Miami office. "If you deal with people intelligently, they tend to behave that way."

But firing, without a good reason, a person suspected of having AIDS? That's not smart.

"We are easily talking a million-dollar problem for the company," du Frense says. "The cost to defend that lawsuit is greater than what it will cost to fire the people who refuse to work with the person," Lowry says.

One way or another, employers will pay.

A recent study co-sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates an employer will pay $100,000 in lifetime medical costs for an employee with HIV. That includes costs of health insurance, long-term disability and replacing the employee. It sounds scary, but is it any more than what a firm picks up for someone who develops heart disease or cancer? Sometimes, attempts to comply with the law fail. Ask du Frense about the $500,000 horror story. In this case, a financial institution hired a young man for a temporary data-entry job. Though the man showed signs of illness and said he was willing to take a pay cut for the health benefits, du Frense said he wasn't asked improper questions.

After he completed the six-month job, he was offered a job that would require schooling and a license. He said he was too ill to go to school, even though firm offered to pay. Two months later, he was fired.

By the time the firm came to du Frense, the man's complaint had gone through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and was headed to a jury trial. The company decided to settle for a half million dollars, rather than be branded as one that would fire a dying man who supported his widowed mother.

Perhaps, early mediation could have saved the company money. Ultimately, "nothing protects us. All we can do is the most intelligent thing," du Frense says. "The only thing you can intelligently do is train and educate."

That may not calm all the fears of home health-care workers who refuse to visit HIV positive clients or of clerks who don't want to work in a cramped office with an ill colleague.

But facts go a long way. For instance, no employee has ever been known to get AIDS through casual contact at work.

Free and low-cost training is available from agencies such as the International Red Cross, public health departments and medical associations. Community groups such as Health Crisis Network in Miami and CenterOne in Fort Lauderdale are resources.

"For staff members who worked with people who ultimately die," Gray says, "it's been a moving experience."

In the end, co-workers with AIDS affect us personally.

"Try to treat people," du Frense says, "as though this particular tragedy was visited upon your family."

Because it could very well have been.

Have a column idea? Write to Susana Barciela, The Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132.
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