Scania South Africa's HIV prevention and AIDS employee support programme, has won an international award. The award was presented by the Swedish Workplace HIV/AIDS Programme (SWHAP). The award was presented under the ‘Most Comprehensive Programme Achievement’ category 2014.
HIV prevention and support in the workplace is part of health and safety of any workplace. Scania South Africa primarily scooped this award because of the proactive support programme they have in place for their employees. It is also known as the employee assistance programme (EAP).
John Viner, Programme manager at SWHAP was quoted in the Sheqafrica.com website saying, 'The employee support programme assists in HIV prevention, early diagnosis, access to treatment and continuous support for employees and their families. Currently over 90% of Scania South Africa's employees are aware of their HIV status and most of the HIV positive employees are on treatment. ?�
SWHAP is an initiative from the International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR) and the Swedish Industrial and Metalworkers' Union (IF Metall). The initiative supports HIV prevention and AIDS support programmes at Swedish related workplaces in Sub-Saharan Africa. Scania South Africa also supports other vulnerable groups such as truck drivers.
Over a 1000 drivers were screened and tested for HIV in the past six months. Viner also stated that, 'The number of activities as well as the number of people included in the programme impressed us and this successful and systematic work to prevent a further spread of HIV/AIDS in the region resulted in the SWHAP Achievement Award. ?�
Andreas Follér, Sustainability Manager at Scania, says, 'Health and safety has always been important to Scania. The foundation to our success has been having motivated, engaged and highly skilled employees. The achievements of Scania South Africa in HIV prevention and AIDS support are a real inspiration to the rest of Scania. ?�
MAKROSAFE congratulates Scania South Africa which is one of their long-time clients. This is a second award for Scania SA in less than a year as they also scooped the MAKROSAFE Health and Safety Award in November 2014.
HIV prevention in the workplace is a growing priority as HIV is one of the many disease challenges in the modern workplace. Early diagnosis, treatment and support would mean employees are able to continue with their duties with very few cases of premature retirements. For companies, this means less production time lost and more profits. Employers are encouraged to establish such HIV prevention programmes and support systems for employees. They can certainly learn one or two things from Scania South Africa's effective program.
HIV is classified as one of the many chronic diseases. However, it is a manageable and preventable disease. Makrosafe has been dealing with chronic diseases and cases of occupational exposure to diseases for a long time. Feel free to contact us and we can help you with your Health and Safety Program
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