Unfair dismissal
Carlos’s case study arose out of a participatory community assessment led by the Alliance, linking organisation Colectivo Sol, and Positive Action/GlaxoSmithKline. During an assessment in León, Mexico, seven out of ten of the people living with HIV had experienced unfair dismissal.
Carlos is a gay man aged 30. He has a degree in fashion and studied for a Masters in Fashion Industry Procedures. Carlos lives with his boyfriend and his parents in León, a district in Guanajuato State, Mexico. For eight months, he worked at a company in Irapuato, one hour’s travel from home.
Carlos had an HIV antibody detection test on his doctor’s recommendation. The result was positive and he had to ask for time off work twice to have follow-up tests (CV and CD4 count). His boss thought this was strange and wanted to find out what kind of tests he was having. He asked a friend who worked at the IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute) to send him a copy of Carlos’s medical files.
Once the boss received his copy of the files, he called Carlos to the meeting room and said:
“You’re a liar, you lied to me; you told me that you didn’t have any diseases! I’m terrified to have someone like you in my company! Don’t you realise that you could infect everyone! Have you got any idea how many people use the same bathroom as you?”
Carlos’s boss did not give him the chance to talk or explain, he just told him to get lost. He told him that he would pay for a few months’ registration at the IMSS while he looked for someone who “would give him a job given his circumstances”.
Carlos made an official complaint to the State Human Rights Commission, which has not been resolved favourably, as the company denied having a working relationship with him.
This experience led Carlos to participate in a civil society organisation, which aims to promote the rights of people living with HIV and to use education to reduce stigma and discrimination, so that cases like his do not happen in the future.
