Panafrican News Agency - November 29, 2001
The bill will make it illegal to fire workers merely because they are suffering from AIDS, or test positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Workers who are sacked just because of their HIV status will be entitled to compensation, and must be readmitted.
Any applicant for employment who is turned down because of his or her HIV status will also be entitled to compensation from the employer.
The bill adds that no workers may be discriminated against, in terms of promotion, access to training or other workplace rights, because they are HIV-positive.
The bill also makes it illegal to carry out HIV tests on workers or job seekers without their consent.
Workers may voluntarily request HIV tests, but these must be given, not at the workplace, but by qualified health staff at a recognised health unit.
No worker can be obliged to reveal his HIV status to his employer, and health professionals must keep the results of HIV tests confidential. Heavy fines are envisaged for any breach of confidentiality.
A clause aimed mainly at health workers themselves states that anyone who is infected with HIV at their workplace, in the course of their professional duties, must receive not only compensation, but also medical assistance at the expense of their employer.
This means that, should a health worker, in either a public hospital or a private clinic, become accidentally infected with HIV, he has a right to treatment with the anti-retroviral drugs that slow down the progress of HIV, and which the Health Ministry has promised to introduce into the National Health Service.
This bill is the work of the Assembly's own Social Affairs Commission, which warned that the prevailing situation was one of "growing and flagrant discrimination, segregation and generalised stigmatisation of workers carrying the HIV virus".
It pointed out that the SADC (Southern African Development Community) has drawn up a code on AIDS and employment, and that countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and the US all make special mention of AIDS in their legal systems.
Given the high levels of HIV infection in Mozambique, the country "must not remain on the margins of this process of democratisation, in which all citizens enjoy the same social and civic rights", declared the Commission.
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