A discrimination lawsuit filed by a man who was denied a job with a U. S. State Department contractor because he has HIV has prompted the department to revise its employment policies toward those with HIV/AIDS.
The U.S. Army veteran, identified as “John Doe,” settled the suit, filed last September on his behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, late last month.
The suit charged that the department and the contractor, security company Triple Canopy, violated the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act after it terminated Doe when he disclosed he had HIV.
Under the settlement, the State Department has agreed to change its policies, which previously prevented anyone with HIV from being eligible for overseas employment with one of its contractors.
Doe issued a statement last week expressing his satisfaction with the settlement.
“I’m relieved that I can finally put this experience behind me and move on with my life,” he said. “I feel a lot better knowing that this kind of discrimination shouldn’t happen again.”
The issue arose in November 2005, the day before Doe, a 20-year Special Forces veteran, was supposed to graduate from a training program for a job he’d been offered by Triple Canopy to provide security at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti.
An official with Triple Canopy notified Doe that he was ineligible for the position because of a stipulation within the State Department’s “Worldwide Personal Protective Services Contract,” which Triple Canopy is required to utilize, that all employees stationed overseas must have a “valid negative HIV result” and be “free from communicable disease.”
Doe was diagnosed with HIV in 2000.
Rose Saxe, a staff attorney with the ACLU AIDS Project, said that while others may have also been dismissed on a similar basis, the settlement is a significant step toward eliminating HIV discrimination.
“Although we have laws barring HIV discrimination in both the public and private sectors, the government’s contract here seemed to require discrimination,” Saxe said. “While we have no way of knowing how many other people were harmed by these illegal policies, we are pleased that the State Department has made policy changes to prevent his kind of discrimination in the future.”
Saxe said the State Department will revise the contract to strike the “free from communicable disease” phrase and clarify that individual assessments must be employed to determine a candidate’s physical eligibility.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].