THE private sector last night renewed its commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, with the head of the Jamaica Business Council on HIV/AIDS Phil Green, calling on its counterparts who have not yet signed on to the vision to do so.

Green, who is also chief executive officer of Cable and Wireless, said HIV should not be the concern of a few people, but an entire society.

Miriam Maluwa, United Nations Country Representative for Jamaica, Bahamas and Cuba, affixes a symbolic HIV/AIDS pin to Prime Minister Bruce Golding's lapel while Dr Peter Figueroa (left) Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS and Howard Hamilton QC, chairman of the National AIDS Committee observe during last week's World AIDS Day Leadership breakfast held at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

"I wish to speak directly to our friends in the business community who for whatever reasons, are not yet with us in this march against stigma and discrimination," he told business leaders at the World AIDS Day Leadership breakfast at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston Friday.
He said many businesses in Jamaica continue to practise exclusionary screening for HIV, but warned that this is "the costliest response and not a solution".

"If you merely drive this disease underground, it will come back to overwhelm you later," he said.

The investment in a workplace programme and policy suitable for that company, he said, is the best bottom line.

Green said addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace is more than just a matter of corporate social responsibility, but a strategic investment in long-term growth and profitability.
"Companies that ignore the threat that HIV/AIDS poses to their bottom line not only through their workforce but also through its impact on their customer base, will pay an economic price," he said.

He explained that the Business Council on HIV/AIDS has 21 member companies that are committed to its mission, and more than half of the members have either begun or completed the process of developing a workplace programme and policies to address HIV.

Overall, 80 companies he said, have been engaged through the co-ordinated efforts led by the National HIV/STI programme and the workplace programme officers working with the Jamaica Employers Federation, the National AIDS Committee and more recently the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) and the Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA). To date 60 companies have been involved in workplace interventions through sensitisation and training sessions.

"About 35 of these have policies either developed or in development," he said, adding that this coming year, workplace programme officers will also begin working with the Business Council and the Small Business Association of Jamaica.

The Business Council also received the first three-charter partnership contributions from National Commercial Bank, Life of Jamaica and Cable and Wireless.

Business leaders, Prime Minister Bruce Golding and the Opposition Spokesman on Health Fenton Ferguson, representing Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, all signed an HIV/AIDS leadership Advocacy commitment document, confirming their commitment to a high level leadership advocate on HIV/AIDS in their individual organisations.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Rudyard Spencer, in an address delivered by permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Grace Allen-Young, said by the end of 2008, all government ministries are expected to incorporate HIV/AIDS workplace programmes in their operations.

He added that the long-term objective is that business sector will integrate HIV/AIDS into corporate and operational plans. As such he said the ministry of labour and social security in partnership with the International Labour Organisation/United States Department of Labour education workplace programme has just implemented a voluntary compliance programme.

"This programme, centred on the occupational health and safety act, will reward companies that have developed and implemented HIV/AIDS workplace policies," the minister said.

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