E-Malt.com News article: South Africa: SABMiller to test employees for AIDS

SABMiller PLC faced a deadly problem five years ago - without action, about 15% of its South African work force, including difficult-to-replace trained machine operators, salesmen and truck drivers, would succumb to AIDS by 2008, Wall Street Journal posted August 17.

SABMiller already was paying for antiretroviral treatment for infected employees. It was producing educational videos shown at employee training sessions. And yet more than three-quarters of the brewer's work force refused to be tested for the HIV virus that causes the disease.

AIDS is ravaging South Africa and weakening its work force. According to the 2006 United Nations report, nearly 19% of South Africans between the ages of 15 and 49 are HIV-positive. That compares with a 0.6% infection rate in the same age group in the U.S. AIDS-related illnesses are estimated to kill 320,000 South Africans a year.

How the brewer went about getting more of its employees tested and treated underlines the enormity of the problem facing South African companies in combating AIDS. It also undercuts the argument that the main problem preventing a better response to AIDS is the high cost of anti-AIDS drugs.

Instead of just offering help, SABMiller realized it needed to convince employees to be tested. More and more companies are drawing the same conclusion, according to the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, which commended the brewer in 2005 for its actions.

"The key thing is for people to determine their status...if you just offer treatment, people don't come forward," says Neeraj Mistry, a director of the Global Business Coalition in New York.

SABMiller set a target for testing 80% of its employees. The brewer hired a Johannesburg consulting group called Lifeworks to come up with a marketing plan to achieve this goal. Hiring an outside consultant was a critical step to assuage employees' fears that a positive HIV test would hurt their career or be shared with fellow employees.

So far, the results are promising. All 283 employees at the plant have signed up to be tested. Most of the company's plants have a 60% to 70% test rate, compared with a 50% test rate at the company's head office. "Executives think they aren't at risk," says SABMiller's chief AIDS officer, Jenni Gillies.

The company says the next step in its anti-AIDS fight is trying to get more employees' spouses tested and informed about the disease.

SABMiller refuses to say how much it is spending on combating the disease. But it insists the fight is worth every rand and now hopes that less than 5% of its work force will die of the disease. That's still a large number, and Ms. Gillies admits "this is a continual fight."

The bottom line is simple, she adds: "It is more cost-effective to treat the employee and his dependents than to lose the employee."


25 August, 2006