An­na-Lisa Paul

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 65 per cent of all new HIV/Aids cas­es record­ed from 2007 to 2011 in T&T oc­curred in peo­ple be­tween the ages of 25 to 49 years.

Ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials of the In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­gan­i­sa­tion (ILO) and the Min­istry of Labour and Small En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment, this could have a neg­a­tive im­pact on the na­tion­al work­force cur­rent­ly es­ti­mat­ed to be around 700,000.

De­liv­er­ing the open­ing re­marks at the first of four pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions on the re­vi­sion of the Na­tion­al Work­place Pol­i­cy on HIV/Aids at the House of An­gos­tu­ra, Laven­tille, yes­ter­day, Tania Par­rott ad­mit­ted the pol­i­cy which gov­erned be­hav­iours in the work­place had not been re­viewed since it was first adopt­ed by Cab­i­net in 2008.

But Par­rott, man­ag­er of the na­tion­al HIV/Aids Work­place Ad­vo­ca­cy and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Cen­tre (HASC), as­sured:

"The re­vi­sion of the Na­tion­al Work­place Pol­i­cy on HIV and Aids will en­sure that it re­mains con­sis­tent with na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al HIV and Aids pri­or­i­ties, new trends, re­search and guide­lines with re­spect to the HIV epi­dem­ic."

Claim­ing a mul­ti-sec­toral ap­proach to man­age HIV and Aids with­in the labour force was crit­i­cal, Par­rott urged the stake­hold­ers present to move for­ward to­geth­er to up­date na­tion­al guide­lines that would gov­ern the work­place re­sponse to deal­ing with em­ploy­ees who were di­ag­nosed with HIV/Aids.

She said in the ab­sence of leg­is­la­tion, that pol­i­cy was nec­es­sary to pro­mote struc­tures and pro­grammes to re­duce stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion, as well as pro­vide de­cent work op­por­tu­ni­ties for em­ploy­ees re­gard­less of their med­ical sta­tus.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the pol­i­cy must al­so ad­dress the needs of the em­ploy­ers, Par­rott re­vealed the HASC had al­ready signed over 25 mem­o­ran­da of un­der­stand­ing with or­gan­i­sa­tions across all sec­tors for the de­vel­op­ment of HIV/Aids work­place pol­i­cy and pro­grammes.

Deputy di­rec­tor of the ILO, Dag­mar Wal­ter, likened the work­place to that of a home, as she said a greater por­tion of a per­son's work day was spent at the of­fice, which should be free from stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion.

Reaf­firm­ing the ILO's sup­port for T&T, Wal­ter said in­di­vid­u­als had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to make sure their work­places were healthy and stig­ma-free while em­ploy­ers and trade unions need­ed to make sure that com­pre­hen­sive poli­cies were for­mu­lat­ed to treat with per­sons di­ag­nosed with the dis­ease.

She added that Gov­ern­ment al­so had a part to play in pro­vid­ing a mod­ern frame­work for the de­vel­op­ment of work­place re­spons­es.

Call­ing for amend­ments to the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Act, the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Act, and the Work­ers Com­pen­sa­tion Act to en­com­pass HIV/Aids in the work­place, Wal­ter said sig­nif­i­cant strides had been made in the past 15 years re­lat­ing to the pre­ven­tion, de­tec­tion and treat­ment of the dis­ease.

"HIV/Aids is no longer dealt with as a stand alone or in iso­la­tion. It is one of the in­fec­tions/dis­eases that we can be ex­posed to, among oth­ers," Wal­ter said.

The ILO has joined UN­Aids in its goal to at­tain the glob­al tar­get set for 2020, of hav­ing 90 per cent of those liv­ing with HIV/Aids be­come aware of their sta­tus.

Wal­ter said of the 90 per cent of peo­ple liv­ing with the dis­ease, on­ly 41 per cent of them were ac­cess­ing treat­ment.

Adding that fig­ure had to reach 90 per cent in or­der to reach vi­ral sup­pres­sion, Wal­ter said she hoped if that was achieved the elim­i­na­tion of the dis­ease could be­come a re­al­i­ty by 2030.