Employers in Japan more willing to hire workers who are HIV positive

From Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan:

The number of corporations willing to place HIV carriers on their payrolls to fulfill quotas for disabled persons has gradually increased, part of a greater trend to employ more handicapped people after the revised Disabled Person Employment Promotion Law came into effect in July.

Some observers believe if more HIV-positive people speak openly about their experiences, it could deepen understanding about what it means to live with the infectious disease. One Tokyo company hired an HIV-positive person for the first time last year, and now employs four people with the disease.

"[The four employees] are doing a great job. I expect they'll be senior executives some day," said a person from the firm's human resources department.

The Disabled Person Employment Promotion Law requires companies to ensure handicapped people account for more than 1.8 percent of their workforce. If a corporation fails to meet the quota, it must pay a fine.

Companies that meet the quota are entitled to financial benefits. Initially, the quota only applied to firms with more than 301 employees. However, after the law revision, companies with 200 or more workers are subject to the law.

Beginning in 1998, HIV-infected people were recognized as sufferers of an immune dysfunction, making them eligible for government disability designation. Therefore, if a company employs an HIV carrier, it can add that person to the percentage of disabled people on its payroll.

"Companies that are required to employ a mandated number of handicapped people are particularly interested in employing people with HIV since there isn't much limitation on the jobs they can do," said Katsumi Ohira, managing director of the Tokyo-based Social Welfare Corporation Habataki Welfare Project.

The job placement company Intelligence Ltd. said that of 230 job offers to handicapped people in December, only two or three were for people with HIV. But the number had increased to 20 out of 275 offers as of late July, it said.

HIV-infected people are also becoming more interested being part of the mandated quota for handicapped employees. According to a fiscal 2009 study by a study group of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, only 3.1 percent of HIV carriers were participating in the quota scheme. Many people with HIV do not tell their employers they are carriers because they are afraid of discrimination.

"It's stressful for [HIV carriers] to work somewhere without telling anyone," said Yuzuru Ikushima, a consultant at Place Tokyo, a nonprofit organization that supports HIV carriers.

One HIV carrier who chose not to disclose this fact was shocked by a colleague's discriminatory remark about people with HIV.

"I started thinking I should tell people about my disease and move to a company more accepting of people like me," the person said.

HIV carriers who hope to find jobs under the quota system say they had difficulty taking sick leave or getting time off to go to the hospital when their employers were not aware they were infected with HIV.

According to the labor ministry, 123 people with an immune handicap who found a job through Hello Work job placement offices across the nation in fiscal 2009, up from 35 in fiscal 2004. While the number of people with HIV continues to increase, the actual situation is difficult to determine, since most carriers conceal their disease.

"If more companies understand the disease, and more carriers tell about their experiences and work without anxiety, people will become more familiar with HIV and will think more about prevention," Ikushima said.

People infected with HIV are able to work until retirement age, said Miwako Honda, doctor at the AIDS Clinical Center of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine.

In the past year, 1,452 new HIV carriers and AIDS patients were confirmed in the nation, bringing the total to more than 17,000 as of the end of March.

The disease used to lead quickly to death, but treatments developed in the late 1990s are able to bring the disease under control. Honda said companies considering employing HIV carriers often ask her to explain the disease. The two questions she gets most are: "Is the disease infectious?" and "Can HIV carriers work stably for long periods?"

There is almost no risk a person with HIV could spread the disease at the office. "The infection route for HIV is mainly sexual. HIV enters the body though mucous membranes, so people can't get infected during everyday life," Honda said.

When people become infected with HIV, the number of virus cells in the blood gradually increases, and the number of cells that promote immunity decreases, leaving the body unable to defend against infectious diseases. When the amount of immune cells drops to a certain level, treatment is started. Patients are given several kinds of anti-HIV drugs to both prevent an increase of the virus and to halt the decrease of immune cells.

Stable patients visit the hospital about once every one to three months, and patients take medicine once or twice a day. Other than that, they can live a normal life.

According to one study, people diagnosed as HIV positive at the age of 25 can expect to live about 40 more years, a difference of about 10 years from healthy people.

"[HIV carriers] can work until they reach retirement age. Because of this, they need to work and make money to support themselves," Honda said.

Hello Work offices and the Japan Organization for the Employment of the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities advise companies considering employing people infected with HIV, as well as carriers who hope to find a job through the quota system.