Numsa is encouraging its shop stewards to take up the issue of HIV/Aids in their workplace. Daimler Chrysler (DCSA) was one of the first Numsa companies to institute a plan to tackle HIV/Aids in the company. In this interview, Judy Mazibuko-Madumo, speaks to Michael Dibela, Numsa shop steward and member of the DCSA Aids committee and asks him to spell out what the company has done.
How did the HIV/Aids policy in Daimler Chrysler start?
Employers and the union are free bargaining partners in this company. When management realised that workers were constantly off work, we got around the table and we discussed this. The policy was then adopted in 1996. But it all started with the formation of a taskforce. Then a two day national conference between the union and the employer followed. Then there were many internal workshops which involved the trade unions and the company. The HIV/AIDS policy was then developed.
When did the implementation process happen?
During the year 2000, everybody started raising their heads. Back then no one cared much about this. But when death was striking, then everyone started to realise that this thing is finishing us. Statistics from the in-house occupational health centre revealed that every weekend and even during the week, a member or someone from his/her family was buried. Only in 2001did many people start accessing the programme.
Did the company attach a budget to put this plan into reality?
By virtue of being a medical aid member, the member, spouse and dependants are automatic beneficiaries of this programme. Therefore there is no specific budget put purely for this programme.
Am I wrong to suggest that this comprehensive plan is medical aid orientated and not an intervention exclusively paid for by DCSA?
No, it is not like that. For instance when one has gone for blood tests, and come back with HIV positive results, the company then sends the workers to Aid for Aids. This is a centre for experts, doctors, nurses and so on. The Aid for Aids people will then scrutinise the blood test results. If the CD4 count is below 200, then they make the necessary interventions like putting you on anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).
If a patient is put on treatment, obviously s/he will require days to recuperate at home. What happens if the worker’s sick days are exhausted and treatment has to be taken at home?
When a person has exhausted his sick leave, the policy has made provision for such eventualities. There is something called Temporary Lay Off (TLO). These are the number of days that the company provides to a person undergoing treatment for recovery. A person can be ill for an indefinite period and the company continues paying that person until s/he gets better and can return to the job.
Medication alone will not solve the worker’s negative anxieties. Does the policy provide for emotional support like for instance a support group?
We don’t call it a support group, it is called peer education. The company has trained some workers as peer educators. They help workers when it comes to health awareness campaigns, distribution of condoms and proper condom use and encourage people to go for voluntary, counselling and testing (VCT) at the health centre.
Can you tell me about peer education structures inside the factory, how do they trickle down to beneficiaries in the community. Do you have a case study?
To an extent that these structures are in the factory does not mean that they don’t work beyond the factory gates. The peer educators go to an extent of visiting the family of those affected. But unfortunately I cannot tell you that in the community so and so has been visited because it will be violating the people’s right to confidentiality and secrecy.
Is secrecy still the issue despite all the interventions put in place?
Yes it is in some cases, but in other cases workers talk about it, but they prefer confiding in a co-worker rather than a manager or supervisor. Just recently someone came to me and told me that s/he has contracted the virus and said I must keep it to myself. So these cases are treated with sensitivity. But one lesson that I have drawn from this is that even with the secrecy and all, people still go for VCT on their own.
How many people are seen in each day ?
On a daily basis the company does not see less than four people since this started in 2001.
Some companies had plans to provide ARVs for employees and they decided to stop the process when government announced that it would provide. What is your advice for shop stewards who have allowed their employers to collapse talks about developing a comprehensive HIV/Aids policy.
There is writing on the company wall that HIV/AIDS is everybody’s business. Therefore those shop stewards and their bosses must always remember that HIV/AIDS is everybody’s business, from government to business, to people at large, it is not only the government’s problem, it affects us all.