Among the concerns raised at the well attended event held at the Maharaja conference centre in Gaborone, was the international civil aviation standard that seeks to deny pilots and air traffic controllers licences if found to be HIV positive unless proven to be fit. Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) president Japhta Radibe called for the bill to be moved in Parliament during the next sitting. The law must include a proviso that employers should not terminate the employment of an employee on the basis of a chronic or terminal illness such as HIV, without regard to the employee's mental and physical fitness to work.
Employers should also reasonably accommodate leave requirements of workers infected and affected by chronic illnesses; testing for HIV for the purposes of consideration for employment, promotion or other benefits should generally not take place; that an employer should not disclose any information relating to the HIV status of any worker acquired in the course of duties without obtaining the explicit consent of the worker.
The petition also stated, among other things, that the most effective policies and strategies should be put in place to protect vulnerable people in order to reduce transmission of HIV/AIDS and that the "right to health must be guaranteed by the Constitution of Botswana as we are afraid the government of the day on another day may decide to terminate free provision of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, for whatever reason, even capricious reasons - and will clearly have no legal redress to address such eventuality". Radibe said this law (on health) should be passed quickly, if not, the unions would fight with everything they had at their disposal. He said that they would be keeping an eye on it and if nothing were done, BFTU would take the matter up with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Accepting the petition, Minister Tibone said that it "takes extensive consultations with stakeholders" so he would only give feedback after studying the issues at hand. However, he urged that Batswana should remember that they were the government. He said that Batswana should change their attitudes towards those living with HIV. "There is no law that promotes discrimination, no such draconian legislation (exists)," he said.
