Who do I have to tell?
It is often difficult to know whether you should tell anyone you are HIV positive. Remember, once you tell someone, you can’t ever take it back.
There are some concerns you should think about before you make any decision to tell your employer about your HIV status.
- Will they keep this information confidential?
- Will they treat you differently than they did before?
- How will your workmates react if they find out?
- Will your employer be prepared to let you take time off for hospital appointments?
If you work for a large organisation there might be an Occupational Health department, and it might be an idea to contact them anonymously (or get a friend to contact them), to see what reaction you get.
Q. Do I have to tell my employer I’m HIV positive?
A. Unless you are working in certain healthcare professions, there is absolutely no requirement for you to tell your employer that you are HIV positive. HIV is a non-notifiable disease. This is because people living with HIV pose no risk to colleagues or the public in normal workplace situations. Therefore, there is no reason why an employer should need to know.
However you will not be able to ask for ’reasonable adjustments’ if you do not tell your employer that you have a disability.
Best practice for employers suggests that there are only two contexts during the recruitment process, in which you should be asked questions which relate to disability. Firstly, employers may ask about reasonable adjustments you may specifically need to go through the recruitment process and attend for interview.
Secondly, you may be asked to complete an Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form, which employers use to monitor their own progress in recruiting a diverse workforce. These forms are not generally considered part of your application and are usually detachable. Best practice requires such forms to be dealt with confidentially, and in many cases they will be treated anonymously. You can always check with the employer how the form is going to be used and processed if you have any concerns.
Remember there is no obligation to complete the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form. How you choose to respond is a personal decision.
Q. Would it be better for me to tell the prospective employer about my HIV status from the outset?
A. There is no right or wrong answer except the one that is right for you, ultimately the decision is yours. However there are a number of things to think through before making that decision.
- Many people know very little about HIV and what living with HIV actually means. You may therefore wish to emphasise periods of good health, perhaps explaining that your health is well maintained by HIV treatment, for example.
Some people are happy to be entirely open about their HIV status. Others may prefer to disclose on a ’need to know’ basis. Whatever you decide, you have a right to specify who is informed and insist that any onward disclosure takes place only after your explicit written permission has been given. In practice those who ’need to know’ will tend to include the Human Resources manager (where there is one) and your immediate manager or supervisor, who may need to authorise time off for medical appointments or any other reasonable adjustments you may need.
- Unless you wish it, other colleagues do not need to know about your HIV status and you should not be pressured into allowing wider disclosure. Again the choice is yours.
- Remember, discrimination at work does still happen, and in Jersey you do not have the protection of disability discrimination law if you become a victim.
- Although the Data Protection Law gives you legal rights that protect your personal sensitive data, which includes HIV status, there is no absolute guarantee that if you decide to disclose, the information will not be inappropriately shared. Before disclosing you may therefore, like to ask for the prospective employer’s policy on compliance with the Data Protection Act and check that the right safeguards are in place. You could also ask for assurances about how sensitive data is handled and who would have access to it.
Finally, if you do decide you are going to disclose your HIV status, you have the right to decide when, how and to whom you do it. You have every right to disclose on your terms, not the employer’s.
Last updated April 2010