AIDS in the Workplace: Legal Questions and Practical Answers

Health experts estimate that one million people in the United States are HIV positive, but new medical treatments allow many to work for years after contracting the AIDS virus. Drawing on the most comprehensive and up-to-date information now available on the complex legal and ethical issues related to AIDS, attorney William F. Banta explains employers', employees', and applicants' rights and responsibilities as defined by the new Americans with Disabilities Act, OSHA, COBRA, the National Labor Relations Act, state and local laws, arbitration awards, and the Centers for Disease Control. He clarifies the complex issues of hiring, firing, insuring, and testing applicants and employees with the AIDS virus. More than any other group of employees, physicians, nurses, dentists, and other health care workers have generated concern about transmitting or acquiring HIV on the job. While the risk of actual infection is very low for medical practitioners, and even more remote for patients, health care employers should develop policies and procedures to guide them through complex and sensitive situations and limit their liability in the event of a legal challenge. They must balance the infected employee's right to work against the obligation to protect the patient. They must weigh the obligation to treat infected patients against the right of employees to safe working conditions. They must consider the right of an employee or patient to know the HIV condition of the other, as well as the infected person's right to confidentiality. William Banta cuts through the medical, legal, and ethical morass to analyze these matters with clarity. The extensive appendix of laws and regulations, governmentrecommendations, checklists, and sample policies will assist readers in developing or evaluating their own workplace procedures. Workers who are HIV positive, managers, union officials, attorneys, and physicians, will find valuable advice on one of the most urgent problems of the 1990s.