Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - August 17, 2003
Adele Shevel
This means that a business with an annual salary cost of R1-billion could be facing added expenses of R20-million to R250-million a year. This is due mostly to higher insurance premiums, increased absenteeism and having to hire replacement employees.
Lifeworks chief executive Sean Jelley points out that the first HIV-related strike occurred in South Africa earlier this year when a major employer told miners that due to an increase in funeral-related absenteeism, workers could not attend the funerals of colleagues unless the deaths had resulted from a mining incident.
The effects of the disease vary, depending on factors such as:
Whether the business is in an urban or rural area. Transport corridors and places where there is urban/rural overlap, such as Ladysmith, Mooiriver and Nelspruit, have the highest incidence because the interaction between money and poverty means that s ex often becomes a currency.
Migrant labour. The higher the percentage of migrants, the greater the likelihood employees will have multiple partners and become sex-industry clients.
The extent of social instability. If family structures are weak or nonexistent, there is a greater likelihood that workers will have multiple partners, and that women will be disempowered.
Mobility of the workforce. Truck drivers or people involved with project construction, for example, work away from their families. Again, there is often a rural/urban overlap.
The source of labour. There are varying levels of social instability in different areas and societies. This i nfluences the prevalence of HIV/Aids.
Demographics. In a predominantly female workplace, for example in the garment industry in Lesotho, the incidence is higher. The w omen are generally under the age of 35, sexually active and disempowered.
Religion. Jelley says that in the Western Cape, a workforce that is mostly Muslim will have a lower rate. He ascribes this to family stability.
Geographic location. Prevalence differs depending on the region. It is low, for example, in Upington in the Northern Cape compared with KwaZulu-Natal. In Richards Bay and on the South Coast, where there is a rural/urban overlap, prevalence is high.
Jelley says not all cases justify an economic case for intervention, but that over 85% do, and that the higher the skill level of employees, the greater the effect on the company.
The average cost of treating a person with HIV who is in the pre-Aids stage and is relatively healthy is about R2 200 a year. To treat someone with full-blown Aids costs about R15 000 a year excluding hospitalisation costs.
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