HIV carriers still suffer job discrimination

All Xiao Qi (a pseudonym) ever wanted to do was become a teacher.

But that dream was suddenly shattered when his application was turned down by the local education bureau Jinxian county, East China's Jiangxi Province late last year after a pre-employment physical examination found him to be HIV-positive.

"It was my dream to become a school teacher. Now all of a sudden, they slam the door in my face. I had to take legal action to make my own voice heard: AIDS patients have the legal right to equal job opportunities," Xiao, who had spent a great deal of time and energy in applying for the post, told the Global Times.

Eventually, he received 45,000 yuan ($7,213) in compensation from the local education bureau after mediation by the court.

It was the first case of an AIDS patient receiving compensation after suffering job discrimination on account of his condition.

"The case is significant. In the past, no AIDS patients won their cases or got compensation for employment discrimination. Xiao Qi's case is the first of its kind," Cheng Yuan, director of the Nanjing-based Tianxiagong (meaning "justice for all"), an NGO dedicated to eliminating discrimination against people with disabilities, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, told the Global Times.

However, legal specialists and lawyers have doubts on whether the victory of the case can be representative.

"Job discrimination on people living with HIV/AIDS is severe in China. If we want to solve the problem thoroughly, certain laws that disqualify people living with HIV/AIDS from holding government posts should be rectified," Cheng said.

Thunderbolt

Living in the suburbs of Nanchang, capital city of Jiangxi Province, Xiao has always been the apple of his poverty-stricken family's eye. His parents struggled to pay the tuition fees and living expenses for his education from their subsistence allowance.

Xiao planned to show his filial piety by finding a well-paid job and help with the family finances after he graduated from a teaching university in Jiangxi Province with an excellent academic record last year.

He participated in a recruitment round for school teachers in Jinxian in June last year and passed the teacher qualification examination with the highest score.

But after Xiao was asked to take a pre-employment health check on August 29, everything changed.

On September 3, Xiao received a phone call from the local education bureau, telling him he was disqualified from the teaching post as he was HIV-positive.

Xiao was stunned. "It was hard for me to believe this. How could I have been infected with such a disease? It felt like the sky was falling," said Xiao, who had no idea of his condition before the examination. He vaguely alluded to a bad romance that might have been the cause of the illness.

A devastated Xiao cried for days, before resolving to fight back.

"I learnt from some other AIDS patients and via the Internet that the law guaranteed the legal rights of AIDS patients to work, and they told me my legal rights had been violated," Xiao told the Global Times.

Xiao decided to defend himself. In November 2012, he sued the local education bureau over their decision to reject his application.

"We found the local education bureau had flaws in its employment procedure, because they called Xiao and informed him of the rejection of his application for the teaching post, which is against the law," Zhang Yongxiang, a public interest lawyer representing Xiao, told the Global Times.