Corporate responsibility to HIV-infected employees

Lawyer Nguyen Thi Thuy, YouMe Law Firm LLC replied:

Clause 2, Article 3 of the 2019 Labor Code stipulates: An employer is an enterprise, agency, organization, cooperative, household, or individual that hires or uses employees to work for them according to an agreement; in case the employer is an individual, he/she must have full civil act capacity.

Article 14 of the Law on Prevention and Control of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS) 2006 stipulates on HIV/AIDS prevention and control at the workplace as follows:

1. Employers have the following responsibilities:

a) Organize propaganda and education on HIV/AIDS prevention and control measures, and fight against stigma and discrimination against people infected with HIV in agencies, organizations and people's armed forces units;

b) Arrange work suitable to the health and professional qualifications of HIV-infected workers;

c) Create conditions for employees to participate in HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities;

d) Other responsibilities for HIV/AIDS prevention and control as prescribed by law.

2. Employers are not allowed to have the following acts:

a) Terminate the labor contract, work contract or cause difficulties in the work process of the employee because the employee is infected with HIV;

b) Forcing healthy employees to change jobs they are currently doing because the employee is infected with HIV;

c) Refusing to raise salary, promote or not ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of employees because the employee is infected with HIV;

d) Requiring HIV testing or presenting HIV test results to job applicants, refusing to hire because the job applicant is infected with HIV, except for the case specified in Clause 3, Article 28 of this Law.

Thus, the employer's responsibility towards HIV-infected employees is stipulated as above.