Raising Queer Workers' Rights in South Korea

People living with HIV/AIDS also have jobs and live in society as workers. Why was it so hard to imagine such an obvious fact? In the fourth event, we looked at the logic behind workplace discrimination that exclude people living with HIV/AIDS from the workplace and talked about their working reality of them. In addition, we listened to the worries and concerns of HIV/AIDS human rights activists who engage in labor rights activities for people living with HIV/AIDS and talked about what we need to do to create a workplace for both seronegative and seropositive people.

 In the event, Kwon Mi-ran, an HIV/AIDS activist who presented how the activism had been responding to actual cases of workplace discrimination, found hope in that more and more people spoke out when they face workplace discrimination due to their seropositive status. Without their courage, it was impossible for the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to recommend a correction of employers' acts of discrimination or improve the related system. Still, in many cases, employers mobilized the stigma of the disease to pressure the worker who spoke out, and it was difficult for the worker to endure a hostile atmosphere as long as the infection was immediately known. However, in the event, we found how people who spoke out with courage have changed the workplace and the need for continuous interest and solidarity in the right to work of people living with HIV/AIDS.

What we discussed

            - Legal and institutional prohibition and limitation of people living with HIV/AIDS’s freedom of job choice in Korean society

           - People living with HIV/AIDS's experiences of discrimination and unequal treatment in the workplace due to the stigma against HIV/AIDS and sexuality

          - What is needed to ensure equal labor rights for people living with HIV/AIDS