2010 ILO Recommendation concerning HIV and AIDS and the world of work

309th ILO
Nov 2010

Res­o­lu­tion GB.309/3/2
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Analysis of precedential value

This rec­om­men­da­tion by the Inter­na­tional Labour Orga­ni­za­tion (ILO) was passed by the Inter­na­tional Labour Con­fer­ence with 443 votes in favour, 4 against, with 11 absten­tions. The ILO is a UN agency that devel­ops stan­dards and poli­cies for labour that pro­tect human rights. The Inter­na­tional Labour Con­fer­ence sets the broad poli­cies of the ILO, adopts its bud­gets and elects the mem­bers of its Gov­ern­ing Body. All 187 UN Mem­ber States are rep­re­sented at the Con­fer­ence by a del­e­ga­tion con­sist­ing of two gov­ern­ment del­e­gates, an employer del­e­gate, and a worker del­e­gate.}

Used as precedent

societal enablers

High­light­ing the role of the work­place in facil­i­tat­ing access to pre­ven­tion, treat­ment, care and sup­port ser­vices, the Rec­om­men­da­tion calls for the devel­op­ment, adop­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of national tri­par­tite work­place poli­cies and pro­grammes on HIV and AIDS and on occu­pa­tional safety and health, which are to be inte­grated into national devel­op­ment plans and strate­gies. These poli­cies and pro­grammes are to be devel­oped by mem­ber States in con­sul­ta­tion with the most rep­re­sen­ta­tive orga­ni­za­tions of employ­ers and work­ers, with the involve­ment of other actors, includ­ing orga­ni­za­tions rep­re­sent­ing per­sons liv­ing with HIV, and tak­ing account of the views of rel­e­vant sec­tors, par­tic­u­larly the health sec­tor.

harm reduction

The Rec­om­men­da­tion sets out com­pre­hen­sive pro­vi­sions on safety and health mea­sures to be taken to pre­vent work­ers’ expo­sure to HIV, with par­tic­u­lar empha­sis on work­ers whose occu­pa­tions may place them at greater risk of expo­sure to HIV trans­mis­sion.

positve legal determinants

Reten­tion in employ­ment is often the pri­mary–if not the only–means of ensur­ing that work­ers will be able to have access to health-related ser­vices, includ­ing treat­ment, and nutri­tional sup­port as a com­po­nent of appro­pri­ate treat­ment. In this regard, the Rec­om­men­da­tion empha­sizes that “there should be no dis­crim­i­na­tion against or stigma­ti­za­tion of work­ers ... on the grounds of real or per­ceived HIV sta­tus or the fact that they belong to regions of the world or seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion per­ceived to be at greater risk of or more vul­ner­a­ble to HIV infec­tion”. The Office will seek to assist mem­bers to draft leg­is­la­tion and pol­icy to pre­vent HIV-related dis­crim­i­na­tion in employ­ment.The Office will pur­sue its ongo­ing efforts to main­stream HIV and AIDS con­cerns into all aspects of the world of work, par­tic­u­larly tar­get­ing work­ers in those sec­tors most exposed to the risk of HIV trans­mis­sion. The impact of the cur­rent eco­nomic cri­sis hits vul­ner­a­ble groups the hard­est, thereby com­pound­ing vul­ner­a­bil­ity to HIV infec­tion. Tar­geted HIV pre­ven­tion poli­cies and pro­grammes at the work­place are called for in the Global Jobs Pact. The Office will seek to act through the devel­op­ment of pol­icy advice, addi­tional tools and mate­ri­als, con­duct­ing nec­es­sary par­tic­i­pa­tory research to strengthen the knowl­edge base. It will also seek to develop evi­dence-informed strate­gies that will increase the impact and cost-effec­tive­ness of tech­ni­cal coop­er­a­tion projects.