ITF affiliate SNTT in Colombia has negotiated and signed a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with a bus company which contains clauses related to HIV/AIDS.
The agreement signed on May 17 by SNTT local in Tolima and the Ibague Express Company will benefit 350 bus drivers. It guarantees job security for workers who receive a positive HIV test result and commits the company to support union organising campaigns on HIV/AIDS prevention.
This is SNTT's first collective agreement this year and has been instrumental in achieving the merger between a former company-based union and SNTT.
ITF HIV/AIDS coordinator Asif Altaf commented: "It is a good development that in recent years we are seeing increasing numbers of affiliates signing CBAs with HIV/AIDS clauses. Unions are in the forefront of fighting stigma and discrimination directed at positive workers in the workplace."
Antonio Fritz, ITF regional secretary, added: "Workers in Colombia have suffered decades of repression, persecution and human rights violations, yet they continue to organise and fight for workers’ rights. HIV has long been a stigma and unions want to fight it, preserving the worker, as a human being, from any discrimination. SNTT leads that fight in Colombia and we are sure their example will become a beacon for others to follow."
