Nissan South Africa has introduced a voluntary HIV/Aids counselling and testing programme for all its employees.
Nissan South Africa has introduced a voluntary HIV/Aids counselling and testing programme for all its employees.
The company is also launching an educational campaign that will advise workers on how HIV/Aids is transmitted, focus on protection against the virus, and seek to dispel some of the myths surrounding HIV positive people. No testing will take place without the written consent of the worker concerned, and tests and test results will be handled by trained counsellors.
“We hope that the majority of our workforce will take up our offer of a free test as only in this way can we gauge the extent of the virus amongst our workers and develop a suitable response,” said Marc Lowe, senior vice president of Nissan manufacturing. “Initially we will run a testing pilot study to assess the acceptance of it by our workers, before we take the programme further.
“This initiative has been undertaken not only because we fear the effects of HIV/Aids on our business, but also because we feel that we owe it to our workers to provide them with the safest possible work environment, give them education to assist them towards a healthy lifestyle and provide counselling when necessary. This is part of our social contract with our workforce,” Lowe said.