4. Workplace Education and Training

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In addition, education and training will be targeted at, and adapted to, the different groups being trained as follows:

Managers, supervisors and shop stewards

• Counsel workers to identify and reduce risk factors in their personal lives.
• Explain and respond to questions about the HIV/AIDS workplace policy.
• Understand and comply with legal requirements (such as testing and confidentiality).
• Deal with infected and affected employees.
• Identify and manage behaviour, and conduct practices that discriminate against infected and affected employees.
• Advice about health services and social benefits.
• Promote the different aspects of the workplace HIV/AIDS programme.
• Explain reasonable accommodation options to workers with HIV/AIDS so as to enable them to continue to work as long as possible.
• Ensure that any information that they acquire about workers with HIV/AIDS in the course of performing their functions is kept confidential.

Members of the Health and Safety Committee

• Assess working conditions for people with HIV and where appropriate, require the use of universal precautions.
• Be sufficiently knowledgeable about the content and methods of HIV/AIDS prevention so that they can deliver information and education programmes to workers.
• Be able to assess the working environment and identify working methods or conditions which could be changed or improved in order to lessen the vulnerability of workers with HIV/AIDS.
• Verify whether the employer provides and maintains a healthy and safe working environment and processes for the workers, including safe first-aid procedures.
• Ensure that HIV/AIDS-related information, if any, is maintained under conditions of strict confidentiality as with other medical data pertinent to workers.
• Counsel workers to identify and reduce risk factors in their personal lives.
• Refer workers to in-house medical services or those outside the workplace which can effectively respond to their needs.

Peer educators should receive specialized training so as to:

• Be sufficiently knowledgeable about the content and methods of HIV/AIDS prevention so that they can deliver, in whole or in part, the information and education programme to the workforce.
• Be sensitive to race, sexual orientation, gender and culture in developing and delivering their training.
• Link into and draw from other existing workplace policies, such as those on sexual harassment or for persons with disabilities in the workplace.
• Enable their co-workers to identify factors in their lives that lead to increased risk of infection.
• Be able to counsel workers living with HIV/AIDS about coping with their condition and its implications.

When, where, and who pays for the logistics and resources

1. The employer will fund all education and training on HIV and AIDS outlined in this agreement.
2. Education and training shall take place during working hours, and the employer will provide paid time off, with a minimum allocation as follows:
• 8 hours a year for every worker.
• 30 hours a year for every shop steward, supervisor, manager and peer educator.
3. Attendance at education and training programmes will be compulsory.
4. Management will ensure the availability at all times of accurate and easily understandable educational material on HIV in the workplace for all employees.

Protection against workplace accidents

1. The workplace must be equipped to prevent infection in case an accident leads to spills of blood or bodily fluids. (Note: this will differ with different types of workplaces)
2. The employer shall ensure that all protective clothing and equipment required by law are present at all times.
3. The employer shall ensure that all employees are educated and trained in the use of universal precautions and provided with all necessary resources (see Clause 4) The employer shall ensure that if an employee is exposed to HIV infection in the course of his or her work, the employee will receive immediate counselling, with the option of voluntary anti-retroviral treatment, paid for by the employer, as post-exposure prophylaxis within 72 hours.
4. Emergency care and treatment for medical personnel and people performing First Aid in and after medical HIV exposure will be provided.

Voluntary counselling and testing and confidentiality

1. All Testing and Disclosure must be Voluntary and Confidential.
2. No actual or prospective employee may be required to take an HIV test, and no employee may be tested without his or her knowledge and informed consent. There will be nothing in any pre-employment examination that requires an applicant to declare his/her HIV / AIDS status.
3. The employer will not facilitate any testing for insurance purposes.
4. No employee will be required to disclose his or her HIV status to their employer or to other employees.
5. Where an employee or prospective employee chooses to voluntarily disclose his or her HIV status to the employer or to other employees, this information may not be disclosed to others without the employee's express written consent.
6. When an employee volunteers to be tested, the test results will be kept only on medical files and will remain accessible only to medical personnel and fully confidential. Files related to HIV will not be marked or flagged in ways that indicate HIV status. The employer will ensure that health workers performing HIV-associated work on behalf of the company do not communicate an employee's HIV status to anyone without the employee's written permission.
7. Trustees and administrators of retirement, provident and medical scheme funds may not disclose the identity of an employee living with HIV / AIDS to the company or the Union without the member's / employee's written permission.
8. Testing will be Encouraged.
9. The parties will encourage all employees to get tested for HIV.
10. The employer will pay for counselling and testing for all employees.
11. Ensuring Access to Testing facilities and Opportunities.
12. The employer will either provide a voluntary HIV testing and counselling programme in the workplace or will ensure that employees have access to a community facility by providing the following:

• • Paid time off.
  • Transport.

Where a testing programme is offered in the workplace it will abide by the rules of confidentiality in Clause 6.1

Counselling provision

All employees who get tested will receive gender-sensitive counselling by a trained counsellor, preferably a shop steward, before and after the test.

This counselling will include the following:

• An understanding of the nature and purpose of HIV tests the advantages and disadvantages of the tests the effect of the result on the worker.

Counselling will also be provided to all employees following the risk of exposure to potentially infected material (human blood, body fluids, tissue) at the workplace as part of the procedure outlined in clause 5.4.

People Living with HIV or AIDS

The HIV/AIDS programme will:

• Encourage workers openly living with HIV or AIDS to conduct and participate in education, prevention and awareness programmes. The employer will allocate paid time off for this activity.
• Promote the development of support groups for workers living with HIV, including by giving space and paid time off for them to meet.
• Ensure that workers who are open about their HIV status are not unfairly discriminated against or stigmatized.

Testing for research

Anonymous, unlinked surveillance or HIV testing in the workplace may occur provided that:

• It is conducted by a reputable research organisation acceptable to both parties.
• Where such research is done, the information obtained may not be used to unfairly discriminate against individuals or groups of persons.
• Testing will not be considered anonymous if there is a reasonable possibility that a person's HIV status can be deduced from the results.

Discrimination

The parties will work together to end unfair discrimination and stigmatization against people on the basis of real or perceived HIV status.

The parties will ensure that no employee or employment applicant with HIV experiences unfair discrimination in the:

• Recruitment procedures, advertising and selection criteria;
• Appointments, and the appointment process, including job placement;
• Job classification or grading;
• Remuneration, employment benefits and terms and conditions of employment;
• Accommodation;
• Employee assistance programmes;
• Job assignments;
• Training and development;
• Performance evaluation systems;
• Promotion, transfer and demotion;
• Termination of services.

1. A manager, supervisor or other employees who discriminate, harasses or otherwise mistreat an employee with HIV shall face normal disciplinary procedures.
2. Co-employees are expected to continue working relationships with employees living with HIV/AIDS. Employees who refuse to work with a fellow employee with HIV/AIDS shall be counselled and provided with adequate access to information on HIV/AIDS transmission. Following such education and counselling, if an employee continues to refuse to work with an HIV/AIDS-infected employee, that employee may be subject to disciplinary action.
3. The parties will work together to create a supportive environment to ensure that employees with HIV are able to continue working for as long as they are able to do so and to provide that employees living with HIV/AIDS are protected from victimization and harassment.

Employment security, leave and duty to accommodate

1. No employee may be dismissed or retrenched because of their HIV status.
2. All employees living with Aids will receive 10 days of annual sick leave and six weeks of disability leave in addition to their normal entitlement.
3. All employees who must care for a person with HIV shall receive ten days' family leave a year in addition to their normal entitlement.
4. If an employee with HIV cannot perform his or her normal duties because of opportunistic diseases, the employer must attempt to find reasonable alternative accommodation for him or her. Reasonable accommodation may include, but is not limited to:
   • Flexible or part-time working schedules.
   • Leave of absence.
   • Work restructuring.
   • Adapting existing equipment or acquiring new equipment including computer hardware and software.
   • Adapting existing facilities to make them more accessible.
   • Re-organizing workstations.
   • Re-structuring jobs so that non-essential functions are re-assigned.
   • Opportunities for additional rest breaks.
   • Time off for medical appointments.
   • Time off for medical appointments.
   • Flexible sick leave.
   • Part-time work.
   • Reassignment.
5. The employer will explain reasonable accommodation options to workers with HIV/AIDS so as to enable them to continue to work as long as possible.
6. If HIV permanently disables an employee, and all possibilities of reasonable accommodation have been exhausted, the employer shall apply standard company procedures for termination of employment due to disability, without unfair discrimination.

Grievance and discipline

1. The parties agree to negotiate the integration of the rights of employees with regard to HIV/AIDS, and the remedies available to them in the event of a breach of such rights, into existing grievance and discipline procedures. The parties will publicise the new procedure among all employees.
2. The grievance procedure shall be the same for an employee with HIV as for all other employees, without discrimination.
3. The parties agree to assist vulnerable employees, particularly women to use grievance procedures.
4. Suppose an employee's HIV status is at issue in a grievance procedure. In that case, the proceedings will be held in private, and the parties to the grievance procedure shall not communicate the HIV status to anyone who does not need to know it as part of the grievance procedure.
5. If a party to a grievance procedure communicates an employee's HIV status unnecessarily, she or he shall be subject to disciplinary action.

Wellness programme

The employer will support adequate healthcare for all employees with HIV and their families, including:

• General assistance to help people with HIV stay healthy, by providing nutritional support and immune boosters.
• Assistance with primary health care and referrals for treatment for opportunistic diseases, including Sexually Transmitted Illnesses (STIs) and TB.
• Access to the provision of anti-retroviral treatment for infected employees and their spouses or life partners on an affordable and sustainable basis.
• The employer will ensure that an employee with HIV is protected from unhealthy working conditions.
• The employer will not discriminate against the use of accepted traditional medical practitioners in symptomatic relief.
• The employer will make freely available at the workplace both male and female condoms.

Benefits

All benefit schemes will be reviewed jointly by the parties to ensure that they:

1. Do not discriminate against people living with AIDS.
2. Make provision for the specific needs of infected people and their families, including:
   • Anti-retroviral treatment.
   • Disability and retirement support.
   • Benefits for widows and orphans.
3. Are economically viable schemes?
4. The employer will assist any employee who is infected with HIV as a result of occupational exposure to infected blood or bodily fluids.
5. To apply for benefits in terms of Section 22(1) of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, No. 130 of 1993.
6. To collect information which will assist with proving that the employee was occupationally exposed to HIV-infected blood.

Design and implementation process

The parties agree to be guided by the following process in developing and implementing an HIV and AIDS policy and programme:

1. Establish an interim workplace HIV/AIDS structure comprising equal representation from management and workers.
2. Identify and understand the risk posed by HIV/AIDS by conducting an impact assessment of HIV and AIDS on your organisation.
3. Establish commitment from management and employee representatives for workplace responses.
4. Appoint a company AIDS Champion from amongst senior management.
5. Draft an HIV/AIDS policy.
6. Establish an implementation structure that comprises equal representation from management and employees.
7. Ensure good internal and external company communication and create an environment that minimises the fear, stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS.
8. Ensure compliance with all legal obligations.
9. Establish partnerships with NGOs, government and other groups able to assist the workplace programme.
10. Establish a plan of action, with a timetable, lines of responsibility and budget to implement the workplace programme, seeking funds from outside the enterprise if necessary.
11. Run awareness and education interventions.
12. Encourage and assist behavioural change that will prevent HIV infection.
13. Encourage voluntary HIV testing and provide counselling.
14. Facilitate access to wellness programmes, HIV/AIDS treatment and care.
15. Extend relevant programmes to the families of employees and the community.
16. Monitor, evaluate and review the company programme.

Monitoring and evaluation

A baseline prevalence study will be conducted to establish the present impact of HIV in the company as soon as possible, in consultation with the union; periodic risk assessment and Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice/Behavior Studies (KAPB) studies will continue to be conducted on a regular basis:

• To ensure that the objectives and principles in the policy remain relevant to new research and approaches in respect of HIV/AIDS.
• To ascertain if the programmes have the desired effects in changing behaviour, attitude and perceptions regarding HIV/AIDS.

The parties will evaluate progress in implementing the workplace policy and programme at least every three months.