U.S. Plans Government-Wide AIDS Rules

The Office of Personnel Management will announce the first government-wide AIDS policy this week, prohibiting discrimination against employees with AIDS and allowing managers to take disciplinary action against individuals who refuse to work with a colleague carrying AIDS, according to federal documents.

“The federal government, as an enlightened and compassionate employer concerned with the health and welfare of its employees, has an obligation to show the way in addressing the realities of the AIDS epidemic,” Constance Horner, director of the agency, said in a memo to personnel directors.

The guidelines say:

--AIDS-infected employees “should be allowed to continue working as long as they are able to maintain acceptable performance and do not pose a safety-of-health threat to themselves or others in the workplace.”

--”Agencies should treat (AIDS)-infected employees in the same manner as employees who suffer from other serious illnesses.”

--”There is no medical basis for employees’ refusing to work with . . . fellow employees or agency clients” who are infected with the AIDS virus.

--”The concerns of” employees who fear AIDS-infected fellow workers “should be taken seriously and should be addressed with appropriate information and counseling.”

--Where such measures are unsuccessful, and “where management determines that an employee’s unwarranted threat or refusal to work with an . . . infected employee is impeding or disrupting the organization’s work, (management) should consider appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the threatening or disruptive employees.”

The government has come under sharp attack for having no policy for dealing with cases of AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, in the federal workplace.

The new federal AIDS policy arose largely from the ranks of civil servants attempting to deal with scattered AIDS cases on an individual basis. The Office of Personnel Management’s policy, to be announced at a meeting with personnel directors Thursday, has been widely circulated among agencies and union officers for comment.

“Every major agency has had an AIDS case, and many have had deaths,” said Andrew Feinstein, staff director of the House civil service subcommittee.

The central personnel agency’s guidance to the agencies has four major parts: maintenance of confidentiality, education, invoking existing government regulations as they protect people with “handicapping conditions” and a prohibition against discrimination.

“The kind of non-sexual person-to-person contact that generally occurs among workers and clients or consumers in the workplace does not pose a risk for transmission of AIDS,” the agency said, quoting the Centers for Disease Control.

Horner said employees infected with the AIDS virus may request leave and the agency should determine whether to grant it in the “same manner as it would for other employees with medical conditions.”