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Draft code will protect HIV-positive workers
Business Day
2000-05-19

Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on 16/5 launched a draft code to help employers ensure that workers with HIV are not discriminated against in the workplace.

Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on 16/5 launched a draft code to help employers ensure that workers with HIV are not discriminated against in the workplace. Mdladlana said there would be public hearings on the code of good practice on HIV/AIDS and employment in Durban, Pietersburg, Johannesburg and Cape Town on May 31. A joint committee of the National Employment, Development and Labour Council's (Nedlac's) labour market chamber and the Commission for Employment Equity would consider public comments and advise Mdladlana on the final contents of the code. The code's legal status would be discussed within the joint committee. We want this code to have teeth, Mdladlana said. The code was intended to create a non-discriminatory environment and provide equitable employee benefits, and would help employers avoid discrimination against those with HIV, as laid out in the Employment Equity Act, Mdladlana said. According to the code, no employer may require an employee, or an applicant for employment, to undertake an HIV test in order to ascertain that employee's HIV status, unless authorisation has been obtained from the Labour Court. Mdladlana said the code's secondary objective was to provide guidelines for employers and employees on how to manage the epidemic within the workplace. He said that the labour department would later this year publish technical assistance guidelines on implementing an HIV/AIDS policy and programme in the workplace. (Source: Business Day, 17/5/00)

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