In Asia and India, high rates of HIV infection threaten economic and social gains. Many responsible United States-based employers are providing workplace HIV education for employees in their facilities outside the country. Peter Petesch, a management attorney in Washington, D.C., reports estimates of the costs of legal action when an employee charges an employer with HIV-related discrimination. Educating even the entire workforce of a very large company would rarely cost this much. This is one of the factors evaluated by the insurance carrier in deciding whether or not to insure an employer.
Discrimination is largely preventable.
Although it often comes as a surprise to employers, the most immediate employee response to workplace HIV education is rising morale. To answer this question, the National AIDS Fund undertook a nationwide study of working Americans late in 1997. They could be employees at any level. Even in a workplace that has had HIV education, employee turnover means that employee attitudes can be guided as much by emotion as by intellect. They apparently are unaware of the research demonstrating that an employee with HIV disease most often has little or no impact on the cost of health care coverage.