Glaxo Wellcome, Molson Breweries, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Canadian Pacific Charitable Foundation have initially endorsed this document. These endorsements are a strong message and a challenge to corporate Canada. The Business Case focuses on five steps that companies can take to address these issues. It is a call to corporations to take action. This includes the information and the steps necessary to help prevent the type of discrimination and disruption which arises when co-workers are fearful and misinformed about the disease.
Ignorance can be a powerful and destructive force.
Some companies have found that out the hard way in trying to deal with this issue in the workplace. For example, in one organization, when employees first learned that a colleague was HIV positive, they literally ceased performing, for shear lack of understanding of the disease. That is in part why the second step suggests that corporations might develop an education program which tells all employees what the disease is, how it is transmitted and how they can reduce their own risk of becoming infected. The third step is to launch a public education program about the disease as an external communications initiative to key target audiences. This will help demonstrate that the business takes its social responsibilities seriously while at the same time providing the much needed message to key publics about important topics such as prevention.