Illegal AIDS testing court case ends in settlement

WHAT was billed as a landmark case in the fight against HIV-AIDS discrimination, yesterday ended in an out-of-court settlement between 22 current and past employees of the Oshakati Country Lodge, their former employer and the medical doctor they said tested them for the virus without their consent.

After two days of closed-door negotiations, the legal teams of both the disgruntled workers and their respondents emerged to announce that the matter had been settled.The parties reached a confidential settlement during the afternoon, in terms of which the 22 are to be paid an undisclosed amount in damages.The Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), who represented the workers, announced last week that the case, which was reported to the organisation’s Aids Law Unit back in 2000, was set to go to trial this week.Trial dates were set for ten days, between July 20 and July 31.According to the workers’ claims, the lodge management had a number of health tests done on them in February 2000, claiming that these were for general hygiene. A week later however, the test results were released and the workers found out that among the tests conducted were HIV-reactivity tests.The lodge management and the doctor responsible for the tests have maintained that the workers were fully aware of what they were for.At a breakfast meeting held in Windhoek last week, Aids Law Unit Co-ordinator Amon Ngavetene said the LAC hoped the trial would set a precedent which spoke to the need to respect the rights of HIV positive people to their privacy and dignity, thus preventing unfair discrimination.Among the group of employees spoken to yesterday after the case was withdrawn from the high court, were those who said they were happy with the settlement. The LAC last week obtained a court order which guaranteed that the identities of its clients not be disclosed in respect of the case.