Business Urged to Send AIDS Victims Home

A group advising leading New York businesses on health issues suggested today that companies force employees suffering from AIDS to work at home.

Gay rights activists angrily called the proposal “de facto discrimination,” despite the New York Business Group on Health’s strong urging that bosses treat workers with AIDS as they would any other seriously ill employee.

The Business Group on Health, which counts Bloomingdale’s and New York Telephone Co. among its 265 members, made the suggestion at a forum on “options and constraints” in dealing with workers suffering from the fatal disease.

More than 150 representatives from large and small businesses in New York questioned a panel of medical and legal experts on hiring and firing AIDS patients, benefit plans, and employee morale.

“Our thesis is employers should recognize the importance of AIDS as a problem and prepare for its eruption,” said Dr. Leon Warshaw, group executive director.

He said the Business Group on Health has received a spate of calls about AIDS in recent months. The group plans to publish guidelines by early February, but Warshaw said there were “no definitive” solutions.

Warshaw said workers with AIDS should be treated like any other seriously ill employee, warning there are strict state and federal anti-discrimination laws.

Companies should educate their workers about AIDS and inform them of the prevailing medical opinion that the fatal illness cannot be spread by casual contact, Warshaw said.

Although Warshaw said most of the problems were diffused by education, he added that companies could also transfer recalcitrant employees or force an AIDS sufferer to work at home.