GUIDELINES FOR ESTABLISHING HIV+ AND AIDS EMPLOYEE POLICY

GUIDELINES FOR ESTABLISHING HIV+ AND AIDS EMPLOYEE POLICY

Fire department management and labor leaders must:

  • Endorse nondiscriminatory employment policies and educational programs about HIV + and AIDS individuals. This requires validated entrylevel and validated continuing condition of employment testing or performance standards.
  • Communicate their support of these policies to workers in simple, clear, and unambiguous terms.
  • At a minimum, comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
  • Fire department management must:

  • Base employment policies on the scientific and epidemiological evidence that employees with AIDS or HIV infection do not pose a risk of transmission of the virus to coworkers and should not require HIV screening as part of preemployment or general fire department physical examinations.
  • Undertake education for employees before such an incident occurs and provide specific, ongoing education and training, as well as the necessary equipment to reinforce appropriate infection-control procedures and ensure that they are implemented.
  • Ensure that employees with AIDS or HIV infection are given the same rights and opportunities as employees with other serious or life-threatening illnesses and protect the confidentiality of all employees’ medical information.
  • Fire department management should:

  • Provide employees with sensitive, accurate, and up-to-date education about risk reduction in their personal lives.
  • Provide support services to those infected or affected.

Four Firefighters Hurt in Fire in Abandoned Harlem (NY) Building

Four firefighters were injured battling a massive fire that tore through an abandoned Harlem building where jazz icon Billie Holiday reportedly once lived.