Employment

At the beginning, for example, I wanted to work; maybe you remember that I said that it was horrible for me that I couldn’t work. I went to this doctor to this commission for pension and I told him “I want to work!” I wasn’t clear in my mind what was going on with me and what is happening… He said: “Yes, I understand you, but this is the Balkans and you can’t work.” And he was very kind, very polite but… I’ve heard totally different stories [from other people], you know, “What! You want to work around children!” Because I’m a teacher… I taught before and I love my children, they love me, but now… now, it is so. And it starts this isolation you cannot fight this, when you must make your own shell and to try to exist the best way you can. (Neda)

A few months later Neda talks further about what not being able to do her job means to her.

But my work – this is something that I cannot – I even now cannot… I don’t want to think about it, you have to put it very deep inside you… Because it hurts so much. So I don’t want to think about this, how it would be like to work with children again or something like this. It is like an atmosphere around me, you know; for example some common things: you don’t have money because you can’t work; you don’t know what to do with your spare time because you have too much of it; you cannot engage your intellect because you don’t know what with; you don’t have obligations to go somewhere, to do something, to be inspired with something, you know? Everything you have to do you must take from yourself. It’s like you’re your own garden. (Neda)

The denial of ongoing employment in this case on the basis
of an HIV status is a violation of the following legislation:



in Serbia

• The Law on Employment and Unemployment Insurance (2003)[3] prescribes equal accessibility to employment and equality in the recruitment procedure for all persons seeking employment, regardless of their race, skin colour, nationality, ethnic background, language, religion, political or other beliefs and affiliations, social background or descent, financial status, marital or familial status, familial responsibilities, age, membership in trade unions, associations or political organisations, or any other factor that may constitute grounds for discrimination or unequal treatment of individuals among whom differences do exist, but irrelevant for the performance of tasks pertinent to the post.
• Article 21 paragraph 3 of the new Constitution of Serbia is also violated in this instance for discriminating on the grounds of HIV positive status (which, amongst others, is defined within mental or physical disability). The constitution stipulates that all citizens shall be equal before the Constitution and the law, that all citizens shall be entitled to equal legal protection, without discrimination, and that any discrimination, direct or indirect, on any grounds is prohibited.
• Other pertinent examples of protective legislation.
  The Health Care Law (2005),[1].
  The Law on Higher Education (2005)[2] stipulates, inter alia, that higher education is based on the principle of “respect of human rights and civil liberties, including the prohibition of all kinds of discrimination”.
• Whilst legislation exists it is the implementation that is a problem. Jurisprudence should be further developed by the general Anti-discrimination Act which is currently being drafted.

in Montenegro

• The Labour Law, Article 3. (1) Employees are equal in accessing labour related rights regardless of nationality, race, sex, language, religion, political or other beliefs, education, social background, financial status and other personal qualities.
  (2) It is the employer’s duty to respect the rights and the equalities of employees in accessing rights, as well as the employee’s privacy and dignity.
• Article 8 of the Constitution of Montenegro, Prohibition of Discrimination, which states that any indirect or direct discrimination on any grounds is prohibited. Regulations and special measures aimed to create conditions for the establishment of national, gender and overall equality, and the protection of individuals that are in an unequal position on any grounds shall not be considered discrimination.

Despite changes in the law to better protect PLHIV unfair recruitment, employment and dismissal practices are still commonplace.

No one deals with people’s life quality here, people just deal with seeing others alive and the like. Maybe there are some exceptions at some levels, but it’s very superficial, the quality of life is really important, because if it’s possible for me to live then we’re wondering what my quality of life is, if it’s something acceptable for me, or it’s like… Like when you put someone on machines like: “It’s great, he’s living!”, and he’s a vegetable! I mean, it’s questionable. On the other hand, when my life is of better quality then I’m more capable of working, then I have nothing to ask of the state of the social services, the social programmes. I mean, I can earn for myself. As in this case: at the moment I’m involved in volunteer work – I’m working, but maybe I could’ve been working somewhere for money, you see. And when I’m not capable of working, I think it’s much more expensive for the state. (Ana)

Dejan’s story is indicative of the situation faced by many HIV positive individuals.

I’m still capable of working. Alright, I can’t dig and break concrete and the like, but I can do anything else, not the hardest jobs, but like: paint, carpet or laminate flooring, parquet flooring. I can build, paint. Plus I work with tools, that’s my trade… But what I don’t understand, I went to the Municipality last week and the week before last, I had to go to the Vice-President of the Municipality and lay my problem out before them. And now, I explained to the President what the matter was, that I just couldn’t understand: I didn’t go anywhere to ask for help but the first thing I did was – I went to the Employment Office, I registered there, I went to the Health Centre – and I registered there. I told them immediately what I suffered from, it was all sorted. And then they put stamps, not stamps but they wrote it on my health card. I did some jobs then, how do you call it? Not regular jobs, but when you get something, someone calls when they need help, for two, three days. And when I was to go again to renew the Health Card then they saw it, right? And when he [man at employment office] saw it he said: “You won’t get a job with it! With this disease there’s no way anyone will hire you here!” And then he suggested I go to the Social Services and explain my situation and they would refer me on and they’d help me and so on. But that’s also no good because you don’t get any assistance from them, they just declare you as disabled afterwards and if you’re lucky to find a regular job somewhere, they wouldn’t take you full-time anywhere because you’re declared disabled. And I chased around for a year, and I got all the papers and… I gave them everything they asked for! And then when I submitted it they said they’d decide and let me know. They turned me down… Because it was determined I was fit for work. But they told me I have the possibility to, [so] I sent the appeal, one day and two days later the decision from the council arrived that, since the papers are outdated and I haven’t sent anything new, I’m still fit for work. They practically confirmed the first instance. And the second instance should be that they call you personally and they ask you questions and you answer. They didn’t call me, nor anything but the paper just arrived and it said there was no more possibility to appeal, I should go to Social Services. And then the Social Services shut me up with 9 thousand dinars – if it were 9,000 at least, it’s 2,900 a month…
And I’m supposed to use it for clothes, food, fags, everything, everything… Because unfortunately I have such a situation at home that I’m the blackest sheep there is in this world. Since that moment I’ve been a middle aged incompetent who can’t wipe his own ass! And I’ve been living alone and taking care of myself for over 10 years, I never asked for anyone’s help. I was a normal, ordinary man, born in the country, grew up on a farm partly, partly with my grandfather, I like nature and so on, agriculture and the like. And so on…
Actually, they say it costs them a lot and they won’t employ me! All I ask actually is for them to employ me for as long as I can work, I’d like to work, only I can’t do hard physical work, I don’t mean leave me somewhere to sip coffee for 8 hours, of course, there are other jobs than digging or hauling and pushing rubbish bins and throwing them on tractor trailers…
I can’t stand that someone won’t help like that. I mean you won’t give me a job but you won’t give me this and you won’t give me that. I have to do everything by myself, how can I? There’s no other way for me, and I won’t sit in this room of mine with my mother just waiting for the devil to take me. I’ll just do it like this for as long as I can. (Dejan)

 

The changing and varied health of PLHIV

HIV is a virus that develops into AIDS. It is a complex disease that affects individuals differently. This means that PLHIV are all at different stages along the spectrum of health and illness. The low immunity caused by their disease means that most are more vulnerable to common infections and illnesses.
On treatment some are almost as healthy as anyone else: others can be weaker and often ill. There is no one standard of health for all PLHIV. In two HIV positive people, even if infected around the same time, the virus can manifest itself very differently.
The health of one person can also fluctuate over time. Most of the time they may be well and fully functional but occasionally they may become ill and unable to work for short periods of time. This is common to many chronic illnesses.