El Salvador Jobs Law Spawns New Fears for Those with HIV

El Salvador has a new law intended to prevent the spread of AIDS and protect those living with the disease. It allows employers to test job candidates for HIV. Experts believe that the law is unprecedented. According to the UN's International Labor Organization (ILO) there is no other country with such a rule.

Supporters of the rule say that they included the provision to protect workers and that employers have the right to guard their staff against people with the deadly disease. The law does not allow employers to reject candidates based on the test results. Any employee denied a job based on the test can sue.

Activists say all of the benefits of the code they spent a year creating have vanished. They fear that the regulation will ensure the estimated 30,000 HIV-positive Salvadorans won't work or have access to medical care.

El Salvador was the last country in Central America to draft a law specifically addressing AIDS. The much-anticipated legislation was designed to protect patients' rights and guarantee treatment. The law creates a federally funded AIDS commission with prevention education mandates and statements that everyone must be treated. It also makes it a crime to spread HIV and compels those diagnosed to notify current, past and potential partners.

As labor law goes, this one is drastic. ". . . There are many countries that say this kind of information is confidential," said Brigette Zug de Castillo, of the ILO's AIDS program in Geneva. "We know many places do the testing anyway -- hidden and illegally -- but to put it right there in the law? No way."

The Health Ministry's AIDS program director, Gladys de Bonilla, does not think it is a bad law. But she admits that the Health Ministry, which wrote the law, submitted its draft to the national assembly without an employment testing provision. The controversial clause was added by the ruling ARENA Party, which also controls the Legislature. AIDS activists suggest that the right-wing ARENA Party put the clause in due to business concerns. "Many congressmen are business owners," said Jorge Odir Miranda Cortez, director of Atlacatl Association, an advocacy group. "It's convenient for them to have this."

Back to other CDC news for December 20, 2001

Previous Updates | Search the CDC archive