Investigation On Employment Discrimination Of HIV / AIDS Patients And AIDS Patients In Some Areas Of China

BackgroundHIV/AIDS related discrimination is still an important challenge faced by the AIDS prevention and control in China, our current laws and regulations still exist some problems in protection of employment rights and benefits of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The discrimination further brings challenges to AIDS prevention and control in China. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out research and analysis to understand current situation of employment discrimination to PLWHA in China and to provide evidence for future protection of PLWHA in employment rights and benefits.ObjectiveTo understand HIV/AIDS related discrimination as well as discrimination patterns in employment encountered by PLWHA, and to explore the influential factors associated with employment discrimination against PLWHA.MethodsLiterature review method was used to comb the existing laws, regulations and policies related to HIV/AIDS employment discrimination. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 2432 HIV infections and AIDS patients from 7 provinces interviewed about their past experiences in job seeking and working. The main contents of the questionnaire included: social demographics including gender, nationality, age, educational level, profession, etc.; AIDS related employment discrimination, such as being forced to change jobs or being fired due to HIV infection, being rejected by employers due to HIV infection,, loss of opportunity for promotion, being anxious about the entry examination, being unemployed, or giving up job opportunities.ResultsWith the epidemic of the AIDS and situation changes, a series of laws and regulations were issued to protect the rights and interests of HIV infected persons. However, some of the laws and regulations restricted conditions of employment. The most social concern is the civil service recruitment examination general standards, which included that AIDS is not qualified for the condition of employment.14.0%(123/876) of the 876 PLWHA who have exposed their HIV infection status to others self-reported having suffered discrimination previously in employment. and on whether they had experienced discrimination in employment of single factor and multi factor Logistic regression analysis, multivariate logistic analysis showed that PLWHA who were lower than 40 years old(OR=2.029,95%CI:1.147～3.589), and who were employed (OR=4.088,95%CI:1.563～10.687) or self-employed (OR=2.681,95% CI:1.082～6.644) were more likely to self-report having suffered the discrimination in employment previously.Significant differences were observed between males and females in employment discrimination.13.9% of the male and 8.5% of the female reported having been forced to change jobs due to their HIV infection (x2 =4.08, P< 0.05). The proportion of males who had to give up some job opportunities was higher than that of females(46.7% Vs.10.5%, x2=54.16, P< 0.001).The proportion of being forced to change jobs also varied significantly between different educational groups. The group with a college degree or higher reported the highest proportion (22.9%), which was significantly higher than that of other groups (7.3% for for the group with primary school or lower,15.7% for the group of junior high school,17.6% for the group of middle/high school/=12.95, P< 0.05).The proportion of rejected hires due to HIV infection was also associated with HIV transmission modes (x2=16.932. P<0.05). The proportion for the main HIV transmission modes (MSM, heterosexual sex, blood transfusion and blood donation, andIDU) were 1.1%,7.8%,3.0%, and 1.5% respectively.ConclusionsPLWHA in China are still facing serious HIV/AIDS related discrimination during job seeking or working process. Appropriate measures should be taken to reduce and gradually achieve the goal of eliminating employment discrimination. Firstly, the coherence and operability of current policies and regulations against AIDS related employment discrimination should be strengthened; secondly, psychological counseling for PLWHA should be strengthened to help them effectively respond AIDS related discrimination; thirdly, the whole society should be well informed and acknowledge the rights of PLWHA in employment.