HIV - New Rights

posted: 08/04/2010

The new Equality Act gives some useful new rights for people living with or affected by HIV. The Act just squeezed through Parliament in time before the election.
 

Pre-Employment Health Questionnaires - banned
The Equality Act, which will come into effect in October, bans employers from using health questionnaires before you are offered a job. Until now, employers could ask job applicants whether they have a disability, are taking medication, or have a medical condition – even if it these make no difference to whether you can do the job. The legal ban on pre-employment medical questionnaires will make it easier for people living with HIV to get back into work or to change jobs.
 

Associative discrimination - banned
The Act also protects from discrimination people who are thought to be, or are associated with, someone who is living with HIV. So partners, family, or friends of someone with HIV can also make claims for disability discrimination if they face HIV-related discrimination because of their contact with someone with HIV. And groups most affected by HIV, such as gay and bisexual men, will also be able to complain if they experience discrimination because they are thought to have HIV.
 

Multiple Discriminations - banned
Dual discrimination will also be recognised for the first time; many people experience discrimination based on their HIV status and sexual orientation and/or ethnicity. People will now be able make claims for each of these reasons rather than be limited to just making a complaint based on one type of discrimination.
 

Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT, commented “We are delighted that the Equality Bill has made it onto the statute books. NAT has actively campaigned for the Bill to include real benefits for people living with HIV. We have succeeded in making sure people living with HIV will no longer have to fear being asked to disclose their status when applying for a job.
We are also pleased that the Act outlaws discrimination based on perception or association and dual discrimination. These new protections secured in the Equality Act are an important step towards a society free from HIV-related prejudice and discrimination.”

For a full summary of the Equality Act and the employment and other reforms that will be law from October see: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx

Asylum Detention Challenges

posted: 23/03/2010

The harsh treatment faced by detained women and children seeking asylum - including women and children with HIV - who are held at Yarl’s Wood will now be closely considered by both the High Court and the British Medical Association.
 

Three Human Rights Abused
"Lawyers have been granted permission to challenge the government's detention policy, which they claim amounts to "cruel, inhumane and degrading" treatment of women and children.

The High Court has given the go-ahead for a judicial review of the cases of four women held at the Yarl’s Wood detention centre after lawyers claimed their treatment breaches articles three, five and eight of the European convention on human rights. This comes very soon after many women have ended a 5 week hunger strike in protest at the conditions and their treatment.

Jim Duffy, a solicitor at Public Interest Lawyers, which is bringing the case, welcomed the decision. "The case confronts the policy and practice of the Home Office and the private company running Yarls Wood, Serco."
 

Three Yarl's Wood doctors investigated
Three doctors working at Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre are facing investigation by the General Medical Council, amid calls for healthcare at the centre to be transferred from the private sector to the NHS. Alistair Burt, Tory MP for North East Bedfordshire, (containing Yarl’s Wood) described healthcare as the weak link and that this weakness can only be ended by transferring healthcare to the NHS.
 

As he points out: "If there is an issue over fitness to travel and the decision is made by a contracted company inside Yarl's Wood, what chance is there of having confidence that it has not been influenced by the contract given to the contractors to get people out of the country?"

More details from Medical Justice 1 and Medical Justice 2 and Medical Justice 3
 
 

Carers Rights Win

posted: 01/12/2008

The millions of people trying to combine work with caring for ill, disabled or elderly partners and relatives can now claim against any employer who discriminates.

Employers who refuse to offer flexible working to carers (who might be a partner or relative), can now expect to pay compensation following a ruling by the Employment Tribunal.

This tribunal decision partly deals with what is known as the problem of "associative disability discrimination". People who do not have a disability themselves can face disability discrimination because of their link with someone who does have a disability. In this case a carer of a disabled son was discriminated against.

What's the HIV connection?

Partners and carers of people living with HIV can be especially vulnerable to discrimination by association because of the levels of stigma and discrimination against people with HIV. People have been sacked simply because their partner has HIV.

Government still blocking disability rights 

A campaign which you can help is underway to make sure the Equalities Bill deals with this problem fully. The Equalities Bill will be introduced in this week's Queen's Speech to Parliament. However the government has consistently opposed the extension of these rights to partners and carers, which is why the campaign is needed. And the campaign is not just about carers' / partners' rights, it is about the rights of the people living with HIV to whom they are linked. If the carer can't have time off, the person with HIV suffers unattended, or their household income drops because the carer has to ask for unpaid time off, or quit work. Quitting may lead to a benefit penalty of no income for weeks.

Despite its previous support for protecting the disabled from discrimination, the government so far opposed this case, including at the Euopean Court, a position described as "completely ridiculous" by the complainant's lawyer, Lucy McLynn. "It has taken someone with Sharon's determination to take the case to Luxembourg to establish something the government should have done five years ago." The government has failed to properly implement the European directive that Britain signed up to.

Forced to quit to care for son

Sharon Coleman, a legal secretary who was forced to resign because she wanted more time to care for her disabled son, was told by the Tribunal that she would be able to claim before the English courts that she suffered "discrimination by association".
 

She worked for Attridge Law in London when she gave birth to Oliver, who is deaf and suffers from serious respiratory problems, including apnoeic attacks in which his breathing involuntarily stops. Earlier this year, she told the European court of justice that treatment she says she received from the firm, such as comments that her child was "always fucking sick" and she was "lazy" when she sought time off to care for him, was covered by disability discrimination law.
 

Coleman says she received less favourable treatment because of her son's condition, whereas others were allowed time off to care for their non-disabled children.

European Court - disability protection extended to associated people

The European court found that Coleman's case amounted to discrimination by association, paving the way for claims by carers who say they are discriminated against not because of their own disability, but because of their role in caring for another person.
 

The tribunal's ruling yesterday, which follows on from the European decision, has clarified the law in England and Wales. Anti-discrimination law is not "restricted to disabled people only", the tribunal said, rejecting arguments made by Attridge Law that to allow carers to be protected would distort the law's meaning.

As a result of the ruling, an estimated 2.5 million people in Britain who maintain jobs as well as caring for sick or disabled family members will be entitled to the same treatment as other staff. Several hundred or possibly even thousands of these will be carers of people living with HIV.

"Employers will have to think more carefully about the way they respond to requests for flexible working from carers," said Lucy McLynn, the lawyer who represented Coleman.

The principle established by the European Court should now apply to disability discrimination by association, not just in employment but in all disability rights. This would cover an untested or HIV negative child refused a school place because her/his parent has HIV, for example. However this principle is unlikely to be accepted by the government, which is another reason why we need to campaign for the Bill to fully include associative discrimination.

source
 

Discrimination Protection for Partners

posted: 28/11/2008

Help push for the 2009 Equality Bill to protect partners, family and friends of people living with HIV from discrimination.

Over the last few years the laws protecting people living with HIV from prejudice and discrimination have greatly improved. However, a small loophole in current legislation means that the friends, family and carers of those same people can be discriminated against because others believe they might have HIV. In July the European Court of Justice made a landmark ruling that it is unlawful to discriminate against someone because they care for or associate with someone with a disability.

This effectively means that friends, family, partners and carers of people living with HIV are now protected from harassment and discrimination on the grounds of their loved-one's HIV status.

The Equality Bill which come before parliament in 2009 will need to properly recognise the ruling and its principles by including provisions to prevent "associative discrimination" in the Equality Bill when it comes before Parliament next year.

More details here

You can help push for this change by contacting your MP through Terrence Higgins Trust - very quick and easy to do here