The Sunday News
THE stigma associated with HIV and Aids in the workplace has resulted in the country recording an increase in the number of labour losses due to the pandemic, an official has said.
Responding to questions by Sunday News, National Aids Council (NAC) national co-ordinator (Gender and Workplace Programmes), Ms Vimbayi Mdege said statistics indicate that HIV prevalence is higher among the employed as compared to the unemployed.
“According to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey 2010-11, HIV prevalence is higher among the employed at 17 percent compared to 13 percent among the unemployed. This translates to higher morbidity and mortality in the absence of any interventions in the workplace,” she said.
Morbidity refers to the state of being diseased or unhealthy within a population and mortality is the term used for the number of people who died within a population.
Ms Mdege said companies should develop HIV/Aids policies and programmes, as this would help in the reduction of both mortality and morbidity.
“NAC has been engaging leadership in companies to develop comprehensive workplace HIV and Aids policies and programmes,” Ms Mdege said.
“NAC has also been facilitating development of sector-specific HIV and Aids policies.”
She said most sectors in the country were yet to develop HIV policies, a development which could rob the country of an active workforce. Ms Mdege, however, said the private sector had established a board to deal with the HIV.
“Currently, only 10 out of 47 sectors have HIV policies and these include mining, textile industry, motor industry, transport, SME, public sector, agriculture, tobacco industry and energy sector.
“A private sector HIV/Aids and Wellness Board has also been put in place to ensure an effective coordination of the HIV response by the private sector. HIV focal persons have also been established in Government ministries,” she said.
Recently, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Cde Mike Bimha, lamented the damage HIV and Aids had on the Zimbabwe workforce and said this devastation has reversed development and retarded the economic growth of the country. The minister noted that there had been a lot of absenteeism and sick leave and in the process employees had lost a lot of money. He said employers have had to expend huge sums of money on sick leave payments, medical aid costs, funeral costs, recruitment and retraining costs.
