Premised on a commitment to protect the health of all employees and to ensure that they work in a safe environment, the Mayor and City Council has incorporated the use of an HIV workplace policy.Royston KingAccording to Public Relations Officer, Royston King, the move, which has been in the making for several years, comes as part as the Municipality’s effort to emphasise the fact that workers’ well-being is crucial.“When we say that we are concerned about workers’ welfare we are serious and we are moving in this crucial direction because we believe that if we can cater to their well-being then we will be able to get more out of them in terms of service.”According to HIV/AIDS Programme Co-ordinator within the Municipality, Dale Beresford, the programme is a review of a policy that was put in place since 2006 and represents a collaborative effort between the Municipality and the Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP) Project One.The policy, according to Beresford, entails some critical elements in terms of keeping with modern trend of HIV/AIDS and other life threatening diseases. “What we have here is a policy that deals with illnesses and the 10 key principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on HIV/AIDS on the world of works.”As a result, the policy addresses issues such as stigma and discrimination,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, confidentiality, reasonable accommodation and also the treatment of HIV/AIDS as any other life-threatening disease. It also includes issues such as tuberculosis and other diseases that can occur in the world of work.The policy was initially put together during several consultations with key stakeholders including supervisors, junior staff and representatives of the Guyana Labour Union and the Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU) and officials from GHARP.Dale BeresfordGiven the fact that the current policy is a product of one done earlier,Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic, some of the aspects of the policy have remained the same while others have been modified, Beresford noted. “This document is official. It was signed by the Town Clerk and union representatives as well as the Charge d’Affaires of the United States Embassy in Guyana (Ms Karen Williams). The US provided funding for this and it was officially launched at the Pegasus Hotel in 2006. All we needed to do was to change the policy in keeping with modern trends and this is what we have done and this is based on our training and consultation needs that were not addressed before.”In the meantime,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, sensitisation efforts are continuing, Beresford noted. And this is especially crucial, he said, as there have been persons who have expressed concerns about persons who are tasked with dealing with their medical record. It is for this reason Beresford noted that the Municipality has sought to train its NIS clerk who is now part of the peer educating team, having been a part of a Customer Care programme that was held earlier this year. “Our people are now able to deal with persons’ medical record disclosures and how to protect the privacy of a person’s HIV status among other things…So we have dealt with that and it has been filtered into the policy.”The policy was on Wednesday last distributed to the various sectional and departmental heads of the Municipality, according to Beresford, and will add to the various workshop sessions.Debra LewisAnd should an employee be found in violation of any terms of the policy, they in effect will be dealt with in a way that requires disciplinary action instituted by the City Council, Beresford said.Health consciousness will be extended to the level of the community, according to Wendy Decunha, the Municipality’s Health Education Representative. This added venture, she said,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, is being extended in collaboration with the Maternal and Child Health Department. “We are working together in the various communities and to date we have worked in Albouystown, Festival City and hopefully we should be moving to Sophia. In this outreach programme we are targeting persons in the various communities and we have been doing cervical screening (cancer testing), HIV/AIDS testing and public education on HIV.”In a few weeks time, Decunha said that the programme will be expanded to better cater to adolescence. This programme, she disclosed, will be undertaken under a theme, ‘Empowering youths to make the correct choices’ and will look closely at the issues of puberty, personal hygiene, sexual and reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.“We are hoping to take the youths out of their school environment and make them feel free and relaxed when we discuss these matters. In the end we hope that there will be chang