Draft bill may spell hope for PLWHA
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) may soon see a day when they no longer have to worry about paying their medical bills or of being fired because of their health condition.
The Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), together with the Indonesian Labor Union Confederation, has proposed a draft regulation in support of PLWHA to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.
"We submitted the draft last month, but the process will take some time since it's being scrutinized by the ministry's legal bureau in order to come up with an appropriate regulation," Harjono, an expert on Health and Work Safety at Apindo, told a discussion on the prevention and fight against HIV/AIDS on Tuesday.
He said if the draft was endorsed as a ministerial decree, HIV/AIDS would be considered on a par with other diseases and thus, companies would be required to pay medical bills for PLWHA.
"If companies or insurance agents are willing to cover the payment for diseases like paratyphoid, why not for HIV, as long as the employee is able to work," said Harjono.
Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs produced and sold in Indonesia costs around Rp 370,000 (US$43.52) per month. While ARV treatment does not cure HIV/AIDS, it prevents the virus from multiplying and spreading in the human body, allowing the immune system to recover and extending the PLWHA's resistance to the disease.
Harjono added that companies also had to abide by the code of practice issued by the International Labor Organization (ILO) on HIV/AIDS in the Workplace.
"There must be no discrimination or isolation in the workplace, and especially no dismissals, because PLWHA should be accorded their full right to work. If, after 15 years they develop AIDS and become physically unable to work for over a year, the companies may then enforce Article 153 of the Labor Law," he said.
Article 153 of Law No. 13/2003 says that a company cannot dismiss its employees unless they are ill and unable to work for a period of at least 12 months.
Harjono also lamented the public's lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, which had caused the stigmatization of PLWHA.
"People are so scared of the disease because they know it's deadly. They won't even shake hands with PLWHA, let alone interact more intimately. That's why it's really important to provide better education to employees about the virus and how it spreads and, of course, inform them about prevention methods," he said.
Harjono said over 200 companies grouped under Apindo had been conducting familiarization workshops and providing "champions". A champion is someone in a company who has a broad understanding of HIV/AIDS and coordinates campaigns or provides counsel.
Ministry of Health data reveal that from 1987 -- when the first HIV/AIDS case was discovered in Indonesia -- to October 2003, at least 3,924 people had contracted the virus, of which 2,685 were diagnosed HIV-positive and the remainder had developed AIDS. At least 500 people have died of the virus.
In contrast, however, a report by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, estimates the number of cases to be more than 130,000.