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31 May, 2007June 2007
ILO Starts Process to Establish HIV/AIDS Guidelines for the Mining Sector
The ICEM has been invited by the ILO to participate in the formulation of HIV/AIDS Guidelines for the mining sector.
In 2000, when the ILO established a programme on HIV/AIDS, the Director General called HIV/AIDS “a workplace issue and a development challenge”.
“The workplace” is not a simple idea: it covers the informal – a small repair shop, a market stall – to the formal: a government office, a hotel, a gold mine. Similarly, the workforce may be one family or thousands of workers in plants across the world. The different nature of work in different sectors means that the working conditions and needs of workforces differ greatly.
At the same time, workplaces have points in common, including a common interest in recognising and responding to the threat of HIV and AIDS. For this reason, the ILO developed the Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
To complement the Code, assist in its implementation and recognise the different situations, needs and interests in different sectors, ILOAIDS has worked on more targeted guidelines. HIV/AIDS guidelines exist for the transport sector, education and for health services, the latter elaborated jointly with the WHO.
With a clear timetable, draft HIV/AIDS guidelines for the mining sector should be ready by autumn this year and tested in a tripartite workshop before the end of 2007.
VCT Counsellors’ Training Begins in Five African Countries
Training of VCT (Voluntary Counselling and Testing) counsellors from ICEM affiliates in five countries (Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania) has started with a financial contribution from Pfizer, the US based pharmaceutical company.
The ICEM “5 by 5” project (five counsellors each in five countries) aims at up-scaling voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) at the workplace.
The current reach of HIV testing services remains poor. The low level of VCT is an issue. HIV testing and counselling services are the entry point to HIV prevention, care and treatment. Without the knowledge of an individual’s HIV status no timely access to care, treatment and support can be undertaken and no protection of unborn children (PMTCT) can be affected. For the community a wider knowledge of the HIV status and its links to interventions can lead to a reduction in denial, stigma and discrimination and to collective responsibility and action.
The ICEM is convinced that counsellors coming from unions and being the peers of employees can better convince them to take an HIV test than medical staff employed by companies or public servants. They can reach out to families of workers and often have standing in the community to increase uptake outside the workplace. They also give a better guarantee that such testing of individuals is confidential, will be accompanied by counselling and is only to be conducted with informed consent.
The training is done in line with certified curricula and ends in recognised accreditation of the VCT Counsellors.
Canadian CEP Humanity Fund in Solidarity Action
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ Union of Canada (CEP/SCEP), affiliated to the ICEM, has for the last 15 years assisted partners in the global South. Among the current projects supported by the Humanity Fund are two directly related to the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic: fighting HIV/AIDS in the petroleum sector in Chad and HIV/AIDS education and training in Nigeria.
The CEP Humanity Fund raises money with a 1-cent an hour contribution negotiated through the collective bargaining process. The Humanity Fund is building partnerships with workers’, community and women’s organisations, which are involved in improving living and working conditions, organising workers, defending human rights and organising health and safety courses.
For more information go to www.cep.ca. CEP is also affiliated to UNI and IFJ.
Brazil and Thailand Defy Big Pharmaceutical Companies
Brazil will bypass the commercial patent on a crucial anti-AIDS drug manufactured by Merck in order to ensure that those who desperately need treatment can get a cheaper, generic Indian-made version.
The country will import a generic version of Efavirenz for the price of USD 0.45, less than half of the price of USD 1.10 offered by Merck. Brazil offers free AIDS treatment and Efavirenz is taken by about 75,000 of a total of 180,000 who are on antiretroviral drugs.
Thailand approved generic production of two anti-AIDS drugs in November 2006. It recently announced a decision to adopt compulsory licensing for two more antiretroviral drugs. Abbot Laboratories, the licence holder of one of the drugs, Kaletra, then took a decision to withhold new drugs from Thailand in retaliation.
In Canada and other countries, AIDS Action Now and churches took protest action on 26 April, on the eve of Abbott’s annual general meeting.
Under the rules of the World Trade Organisation, a compulsory licence can be granted in a health emergency or if the pharmaceutical industry abuses its pricing.
In a related development, the Clinton Foundation AIDS Initiative concluded an agreement with Indian generic manufacturers Cibla and Matrix Laboratories for the procurement of second line antiretrovirals, which are very expensive and used when AIDS sufferers have developed resistance to first line drugs. The deal is financed by UNITAID.
(Source: NZZ am Sonntag, Switzerland, 6 May 2007 and Newsweek, International Edition, 9 April. For further reading on compulsory licensing, go to www.twnside.org.sg for Martin Khor’s article “Patents, Compulsory Licensing and Access to Medicines”)
South Africa: Delayed State AIDS-Fighting Body going at last
The newly constituted South African National AIDS Council (Sanac), which will be the lead agency in the fight against HIV/AIDS, was officially launched on 1 May after years of delays by the government.
The council, which is chaired by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has endorsed the five-year national strategic plan for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Last year saw increased pressure from opposition parties, anti-AIDS groups and the Congress of South African Trade Unions on the government for it to be more effective in the fight against the epidemic.
The main goal of the five-year plan is to reduce the rate of new HIV infections and mitigate the effect of AIDS on individuals, families and communities. Targets of the plan to be reached by 2011 include: providing treatment to 80% of adults who need it; reducing the proportion of adults starting antiretroviral treatment in hospital to 30%; increasing the number of HIV patients on treatment overseen by nurses to 70%; and reducing the rate of new infections by 50%.
Sanac’s membership includes the government at a ministerial level and leaders of business, labour and civil society.
(Source: Business Day, Johannesburg, posted on the website 2 May 2007)
Nigeria: Federal Government Approves Workplace Policy on HIV/Aids
Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Hassan Lawal, announced the approval of the workplace policy on HIV/AIDS when he launched a new ILO report on discrimination in the world of work.
Lawal said the policy provided guidelines to facilitate the establishment of workplace responses to HIV/AIDS in both the formal and informal sectors. He said the policy would also protect the rights of infected and affected people, while also sensitising them on options of redress.
The minister stated that the policy would build the capacity of management and workers in handling HIV/AIDS issues in the workplace.
(Source: This Day, Lagos, 13 May 2007)
News from ILOAIDS: ILO constituents renew commitment to act on AIDS
In 2001, governments, employers and workers agreed the ground-breaking Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. Translated into over 40 languages, a reference point for laws and policies in over 70 countries, the Code of Practice will now be complemented by a Recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
To take forward the workplace response to AIDS, the March 2007 session of the ILO Governing Body decided to place HIV/AIDS on the agenda of the International Labour Conference in 2009.
This means that the ILO has now begun work towards the adoption of a Recommendation. A first discussion will be held during the International Labour Conference in June 2009, and the new standard is expected to be adopted as the outcome of a second discussion in June 2010.
Recommendations provide guidance for states and for employers' and workers' organisations, among others, and form a basis for ILO promotional and assistance measures.
(Note by the Editor: Agreement was not reached on a Convention which is the stronger instrument and which the workers’ representatives would have preferred).
(Source: ILOAIDS Website)
News from the Global Union Programme and Global Union Federations
The German Government has agreed to raise the issue of a regular HIV/AIDS review at the upcoming G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, 6 – 8 June. The German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said, in a letter to the Chair of the Global Unions AIDS Programme, Alan Leather, that the German Government would present the findings of its own review to the G8 and discuss the need for additional monitoring exercises. Global Union leaders also raised the issue during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on 7 May.
The Global AIDS Alliance, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and numerous other organisations have joined the call for universal access and the need for accountability by monitoring progress through a high-level permanent working group.
The Global Unions representative also lobbied ministers and government delegations at the WHO World Health Assembly in Geneva in May for a G8 high-level, permanent working group, which will ensure that responding to and reporting on the epidemic takes place regularly at the G8 summits.
In its most recent HIV/AIDS updates (no. 20 and 21 of 1 and 15 May) the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) reports, among others, on its work with the World Bank in the Transport Forum where workers’ rights and HIV prevention were key issues, on the HIV/AIDS situation in Kazakhstan and on a meeting in Berlin on European Employers’ and Trade Unions’ response to HIV/AIDS (see: www.itfglobal.org).
In its most recent newsletter on EFA and HIV/AIDS Prevention at Schools, the Education International (EI) has published, among others, an article on the ban of sex education in schools in Maharashtra state, India. The Indian teachers’ union AIFTO condemned this ban, which is also in force in a number of other Indian states www.ei-ie.org/efaids.