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HIV/AIDS hits South African businesses
Khopotso Bodibe 18 December 2003. Health-E News. Republished courtesy of Health-E News Service.
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HIV/AIDS has reduced labour capacity, increased absenteeism and raised the cost of employee benefits according to a new survey by Bureau for Economic Research (BER).
The study, conducted among 1006 companies in the manufacturing, retail, wholesale, motor trade, building and construction sectors, found that 9% of respondents indicated that HIV/AIDS already had a significant adverse impact on their business, while 43 % envisage a negative impact in five years?’ time.
Dr Leighton McDonald, spokesperson for the South African Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (SABCOHA) said ?“HIV is undoubtedly a bottom line for business as it impacts on production costs and consumer markets.?”
According to McDonald more than a third of the companies surveyed indicated that HIV and AIDS had reduced labour productivity or increased absenteeism and raised the cost of employee benefits. Some 30 % reported higher labour turnover rates; 27 % indicated that they had lost experience and skills, while 24 % incurred recruitment and training costs due to the epidemic.
?“Given that only 8 % of all the companies surveyed expect to be able to pass some of these HIV/AIDS-related costs on to consumers by increasing their selling process, it is not surprising that so many reported that the epidemic is having an adverse impact on profits,?” he said.
Dr McDonald said results from the survey suggest that most companies in South Africa had failed to respond to the epidemic. ?“Only a quarter of all the firms surveyed had implemented a formal HIV/AIDS policy, while less than a fifth have a voluntary counselling and testing programme, provide care, treatment and support workers,?” said Mc Donald.
He said employers are doing slightly better on the softer interventions that require less resources, such as workplace awareness programmes.
?“Overall, 41 % of respondents indicated that they have implemented an HIV/AIDS awareness programme,?” he said.
According to SABCOHA, the response to the epidemic needs to be speeded up. ?“It is our hope that the results from this survey will assist the private sector in recognising the business case for further action against HIV/AIDS in the workplace and beyond?”, McDonald added.
The survey, released last week, is the largest on the impact of HIV/AIDS on South African business to date. It was conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) during October and November. The full report will be published in January 2004. |
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