Employment
Included in this section are statutes, regulations, court decisions, agency guidelines and other materials related to employment discrimination on the basis of HIV status, occupational restrictions for HIV-positive people, and employer-provided disability benefits. Employment discrimination against people living with HIV may take the form of bias in hiring, refusal to grant workplace modifications to accommodate medical conditions, or unjustified termination. Moreover, practice and licensing restrictions imposed on HIV-positive individuals, such as health care professionals, fuels stigma that keeps many people with HIV closeted about their status. Titles I and II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 exist to protect people with disabilities, including people living with HIV, from this kind of discrimination in the workplace, but the law is only as strong as its judicial interpretation.
HIGHLIGHTED RESOURCE
Questions and Answers: The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rights of Persons with HIV/AIDS to Obtain Occupational Training and State Licensing, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
This fact sheet makes it clear that federal disability antidiscrimination law prohibits state licensing agencies and occupational training schools from discriminating against individuals with HIV or AIDS by excluding them on the basis of a requirement that they be free from any "infectious, communicable or contagious disease." The document reiterates that individuals with HIV or AIDS are protected by the ADA; that state licensing agencies and public trade schools for barbering, cosmetology, massage therapy, and other occupations are covered under Title II of the ADA; and that private trade schools are covered by Title III of the ADA. The text of this U.S. Department of Justice fact sheet closely tracks the guidance drafted and submitted to the Obama Adminstration by the Center for HIV Law and Policy, together with the ACLU, Lambda Legal, GLAD, and the AIDS Legal Foundation of Chicago in HIV/AIDS Recommendations for the Obama Administration, which is also available in the Resource Bank. Click here to download.
HIGHLIGHTED RESOURCE
State Guidelines for HIV-Positive Health Care Workers, The Center for HIV Law & Policy
 This chart summarizes the guidelines and policies currently in place regarding HIV-positive health care workers (HCWs) in all 50 states, as well as some U.S. territories. For each state, the chart includes any relevant guidelines, statutes, or regulations, as well as definitions of “HCW” and “invasive procedure” adopted by the state. It also includes information on the state's policy related to testing HCWs for HIV, notification of patients, and implementation of restrictions on the practice of HIV-positive HCWs.
The guidelines, statutes, and regulations referenced in this document were adopted between 1991 and 1993 in response to a CDC directive that was eventually codified. In the 15 years since these policies were put in place, the limited ways in which HIV transmission is a genuine risk, and the absence of such risk to health care patients, has been solidly confirmed. In 2000, Professor Larry Gostin called for a revision of the national policy restricting the practices of HIV-positive HCWs, concluding that such a policy is not necessary because of the negligible risk of HIV transmission and that, because the policy unnecessarily stigmatizes HIV-positive HCWs, some HCWs might avoid or delay testing, or leave the medical profession altogether. Click here to download.
HIGHLIGHTED RESOURCES
How to Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Guide for Restaurants and Other Food Service Employers, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
The EEOC's guidelines on the employment of food service workers make clear that HIV is not a food-borne disease and that an employee's or potential employee's status as HIV-infected is not alone a sound basis on which to base hiring or employment assignment decisions. Click here to download.
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