Kay Carberry speech to World Aids Day Seminar

I want to live my rights in the workplace

World AIDS Day Seminar

09.30 to 12.30, Tuesday 1 December 2009

Speaking note for Kay Carberry, TUC Assistant General Secretary

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A warm welcome to you all on this important occasion when we mark World AIDS Day.

I am delighted to be here to share a few thoughts on the role of the workplace in the fight against the pandemic, and - I'll leave it to the end of my remarks - to ask you for money!

A very special welcome to you, Mike, for being here with us today despite your numerous engagements on a day like this, and to your colleague David who I am sure is similarly in enormous demand today.

We are also very grateful for the presence of the representatives from the High Commissions of Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

A special welcome to Daniel Boatey from the Ghana TUC for being with us today and to all other speakers here today.

This year's World AIDS Day theme focuses on the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. And rightly so. In our view, the rights of the people living with HIV/AIDS have not yet received the attention they deserve.

We've called this seminar 'I want to live my rights in the workplace' because this captures what we believe to be our role in the campaign. Our role is to help combat stigma and discrimination, and also to help protect and promote the rights and entitlements of workers, their families and communities affected by the disease.

According to the ILO, there are over 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world. Over 30 million of them are of working age. Most of them are in developing countries, in Africa in particular, and over half of them are women.

For us in the trade union movement, HIV/AIDS is not just a health issue, although it is indeed a very serious public health problem. It is also a question of human rights. It is a social issue, an economic issue, and a very serious impediment to development.

In the trade union movement we have a contribution to make through workplace initiatives.

The ILO has recognized the importance and effectiveness of workplace action.

This year, trade unions played a vital role in mobilising support for a new recommendation on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work, and I'd like to pay tribute to the work of Stewart Brown from the Fire Brigades Union who represented the TUC in that work.

At the ILO Conference in 2010, the text will be finalized and we hope the new recommendation will be adopted in June. That will open up new avenues for effective workplace action on the pandemic.

Another important step will be next year's International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Here again the international trade union movement will be making their voice heard loudly.

Let me say a few words about the TUC's track record.

We were among the first to react to the outbreak of the disease in the UK in the early eighties.

In collaboration with the CBI and ACAS we played a leading role in co-ordinating workplace response to HIV/AIDS. We helped develop a set of workplace policies, practices and strategies through partnership with employers.

Two years ago we produced a new workplace guide on HIV/AIDS in collaboration with the National AIDS Trust.

In many parts of the world, trade unionists have joined hands with employers to form a common front against the disease, for instance with training programmes for health and safety representatives as well as providing information and counselling in workplaces.

We've also supported ILO efforts by to co-ordinate the workplace response to HIV/AIDS in developing countries. And we've promoted the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work.

But I want to draw particular attention to some of the practical programmes that, through the Bill Morris Fund for HIV/AIDS, are delivering assistance right now to workers in Africa.

There are three workplace initiatives underway with TUC support, in Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

In Ghana, working with the Timber and Woodworkers' Union there, our initiative is designed to prevent the spread of the disease and encourage workers to go for voluntary counselling and testing.

Our Project Co-ordinator, Daniel Owusu Boatey is here with us today, and he will tell you more about the project and its impact.

In Uganda, we have been collaborating with the National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) on a programme of education and information campaigns. The project is also about defending workers' interests and rights through collective bargaining.

I should, perhaps, say at this point that the TUC is deeply worried, as many others are, about the law before Uganda's Parliament at present which would criminalise same sex relationships. There are many reasons to oppose that proposed legislation, but one of them is that it will make it much more difficult to address the challenge in Uganda of HIV/AIDS.

The TUC is in touch with the Foreign Office and with the Ugandan trade union movement on that issue, and I just hope that the Ugandan Government will be persuaded to reconsider.

Lastly, in Nigeria, we're collaborating with the Nigeria Labour Congress and its affiliates in the education and health sectors. The aim is to prevent the spread of the pandemic in those sectors through an information and education programme. There's also collaboration with employers on workplace policies on HIV/AIDS that protect workers' rights.

These projects cost money, of course, and I am grateful to Bill for the donation he made when he retired from the TGWU to establish the Bill Morris Fund that we launched this time last year. I am also grateful to the Department for International Development for the Programme Partnership Arrangement which funds our Nigerian project.

The rest of the money we are spending comes from trade union donations to TUC Aid, and I would encourage you to go back to your unions, tell members what we are doing, and ask for more.

You can find more information about all these projects - and how to contribute to TUC Aid - on the TUC website.

I do hope that this seminar will make a significant contribution to strengthening the case for workplace action on HIV/AIDS. I wish you a very successful seminar.