Living with AIDS on the Job

As lawsuits arise, companies are learning to give victims a chance

The deadly swath being cut by acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, is fast becoming a quandary for U.S. corporate management as well as a challenge for the U.S. health system. As the disease continues to spread, the emergence of the AIDS victim in the workplace poses one of the country's most difficult tests of employer compassion and good judgment -- and increasingly, of legal acumen. Many managers have reacted by firing AIDS sufferers outright or banning the employee from work on permanent sick leave. But now, at least partly because a thicket of lawsuits has sprung up around cases of the...

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