GENEVA (AP) — Governments, employers and workers agreed Thursday to recommend an end to mandatory HIV testing for job seekers as part of a series of measures to prevent and treat AIDS in the workplace.
Testing for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, must be voluntary and no job applicant or employee should be forced to undergo testing, according to the recommendation adopted at the annual meeting of the International Labor Organization.
The measures passed with 439 votes in favor, 4 against and 11 abstentions. The ‘no’ votes came from three Malaysian representatives and one Sudanese.
The recommendations, which aren’t binding, also include other measures to make sure workers with AIDS aren’t stigmatized, have access to treatment and HIV prevention is also done in the workplace.
An estimated 33.4 million people are living with HIV worldwide and most of them are at working age, according to the U.N.
In many countries job seekers are required to undergo HIV testing in certain sectors, such as the military and health care, said Sophia Kisting, who heads the ILO’s program to fight HIV/AIDS. "That is spread fairly globally, " she said.
The ILO experts said they were unable to say in which countries mandatory HIV testing is most used.
But Anna Torriente, a legal expert with the agency, said "it’s a widespread practice."
"Sometimes the workers don’t even know they’re being tested," she said, referring to pre-employment medical examination that includes blood tests.
Nearly 60 governments require HIV testing for people who want to travel to their countries, Torriente said.
The United States earlier this year lifted 22-year-old travel ban against people with HIV — a move that was applauded by the U.N.
Kisting said HIV testing is often required for people working in the transport sector, in civil aviation and in the maritime sector.
"In the maritime sector it is very much the practice not to let workers who are HIV positive onto the boats," she said.
"The explanation is that it is very hard work, it’s long absences from home. If somebody gets sick it will be difficult to give them full treatment they may need. It comes from the past of HIV," said Kisting.
"Mandatory testing drives HIV underground because it’s stigmatizing," she said.
If HIV testing is voluntary and confidential, many more people take a test, she said.
ILO’s 183 member states will have to send the new standard to their parliaments within a year to decide how to reconcile them with national policies and laws, said Kisting.
The ILO has no possibility of sanctions if countries ignore its recommendation.
Jan Sithole, who represents the workers in ILO debates, said workers’ associations would have preferred a convention, which would have been binding for countries. But there was insufficient support from governments and employers for binding rules, he said.
