It's World AIDS Day tomorrow and the TUC is launching a campaign to combat the discrimination and stigma that accompanies infection.
Alongside the global pandemic, 70,000 people are now HIV positive in the UK. In that light the TUC said the workplace was a "key battleground" because HIV is suffered disproportionately by people of working age.
And although discrimination on grounds of HIV infection is illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act - many people living with HIV face unfair treatment at work, according to the TUC.
A recent survey found that majority of workers living with HIV still felt unable to tell their employer about their condition, despite increased legal protection.
A 2005 revision to the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) extended protection to employees living with HIV from when they are first diagnosed. However 84% of non-white gay men living with HIV who responded to the survey said they did not feel able to tell their employers about their condition.
Coming from a country which has the most HIV infected people in the world, a country where employers and the HR function are confronted with HIV work related issues everyday, there is a feeling here in the UK that employers are still uncertain about what their obligations are to HIV-positive employees.
For how long will that be the case, if indeed that survey is correct?
