Earl C. Pike has a friend who does AIDS research and who happens to have AIDS himself. If he were driven from his job by the stigma of HIV disease, the world would lose valuable talent, Mr. Pike says.
And his friend would lose his reason to live: "When the world tells you you're not needed any more, that's when people start to get sick and die," he says.
Nevertheless, says Mr. Pike, the author of "We Are All Living with AIDS: How You Can Set Policies and Guidelines for the Workplace," American businesses have largely chosen to ignore the legal and ethical issues posed by the epidemic.
Increasingly, AIDS is affecting a work force in its prime productive years, says Mr. Pike, who is the AIDS and training coordinator for the chemical dependency program division of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. What's more, medical advances have permitted those with AIDS to live longer, prolonging their presence at work.
And it's not just large companies that need to develop sensitive and practical policies for dealing with the effects of the epidemic. Small businesses, which employ about 60 percent of the nation's private-sector work force, are also feeling AIDS' human toll.
In a June 1993 report titled "HIV/AIDS: A Challenge for the Workplace," the National Commission on AIDS warned that the absence of policies and employee education programs "will impair the smooth running, productivity, and competitiveness of many businesses, especially small businesses."
Companies need to comply with the law, take measures to protect employee confidentiality, enact education programs or offer prevention techniques, Mr. Pike and other AIDS activists say.
Locally, some companies have established AIDS programs informally. Baltimore Goodwill Industries, for example, hires disabled employees, including those with AIDS or HIV, and offers training in universal precautions against infection.
Other AIDS awareness issues are discussed in regular staff meetings, and workers may refer to their employee assistance program for more information, says Jane Lamberger, a Goodwill program manager. But Goodwill, as of yet, has no formal AIDS policy, she says.
Nationally, corporations such as Levi Strauss, Western Union, Time Warner and IBM have instituted formal AIDS workplace strategies.
