Employers

As a general rule, employers do not need to know about your HIV status. There's no law that imposes an obligation on an employee (or a prospective employee) to provide specific information on health. But there is also no law to stop an employer from asking such questions.

Disclosing your HIV status may not be a good idea if you are not sure that your employer will treat the issue sensitively. The danger is that personal information may be made public, you may suffer discrimination, or your bosses may simply lose confidence in your ability to do the job.

On the other hand, if your employer is supportive, it could be easier to make changes to your workload, to have time off for appointments, or to deal with periods of sickness.

How to tell

If you want your employer’s support, you could ask to speak in confidence to your manager or human resources representative. You could explain that you have a medical condition, without naming HIV. It may help to bring a letter from your doctor explaining that medication keeps your condition under control and that you are able to do the job. You can stress that you want this personal information to be kept secret.

Applying for a job

When you apply for a job, there may be questions on the application form about medication or having a medical condition. If you lie and are found out, you could lose the job. This is called a breach of mutual trust. Alternatively, you could try, as tactfully as possible, to avoid answering the question:

• You could leave that part of the form blank, and wait to see if they come back to you for an answer.
• You could decline to give sensitive personal data which is protected by the Data Protection Act. To be consistent, you could withhold your ethnic group as well as health information.
• If pressed for more information, you could ask your doctor to write a letter confirming that you will be able to do the job, despite your unnamed health condition.

However, you need to be aware that doing these things might put you at a disadvantage in the competitive employment market.

Already employed

If you are already working and you refuse to supply this information if your employer asks for it, you might be seen as a disruptive employee. This information might be being collected by the employer to ensure they comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

Disability Discrimination Act and HIV

The alternative is to disclose your HIV status. It’s worth knowing that all people with HIV are protected under the Disability Discrimination Act. This says that you cannot be refused a job because of your HIV status, and that an employer has to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make it possible for you to do your work. This could include changing work schedules, for example. The Data Protection Act 1998 also states that the information must be kept confidential.

You can find out more about the Disability Discrimination Act and HIV on the Point of Diagnosis website.

To be protected by this law, your employer needs to know about your HIV status.  But you can tell them when you want – you don’t have to tell them when you apply for the job.

Working in healthcare

If you work in healthcare, you are obliged to inform your occupational health physician and to avoid performing invasive procedures.