ABSTRACT

This book is about the various ways in which people have responded to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in their roles as employers, employees, and the users of services provided by employing organizations. This is an area that has been largely ignored by researchers investigating the social implications of AIDS, a neglect that probably stems from a number of inter-related factors. Firstly, the workplace is not generally associated with behaviours which lead to the transmission of HIV, i.e., the ‘recreational’ activities of sex and drug-use. Secondly, for many of those who have become ill as a result of HIV infection, work is not an option. Indeed, many are encouraged by advisers to give up work at an early opportunity in order to gain full access to state benefits or to avoid stress or exertion that could further impair their health (Green, 1995). Finally, there is the view, particularly common in western Europe with its well developed culture of state welfare provision, that issues relating to HIV/AIDS, whether they be concerned with prevention, treatment or care, are principally the responsibility of ‘expert’ state agencies or voluntary/community organizations, rather than the employer. Without necessarily denying some validity to these propositions, it can also be argued that there are important reasons why the sphere of employment and workrelated activity should be a focus for HIV/AIDS research.