Description: In this first empirical study of HIV/AIDS-related practices and attitudes in the workplace from a public administrative perspective, James D. Slack looks at the ramifications of HIV/AIDS in public service situations and specifically in local government.

The municipal workplace collectively employs the largest group of workers in the United States. On the basis of survey research, Slack explores the extent to which municipal governments are prepared to deal with HIV/AIDS-related problems facing the workplace, compares the level of preparedness in the 1990s to that found in a similar study conducted in the 1980s, and analyzes the costs. Four specific issues are investigated: the legal constraints on ways of coping with HIV/AIDS in the workforce; management's attitudes toward seropositive job applicants and employees; the responsiveness by local governments to the epidemic in their workplace; and factors that explain the extent of management's responsiveness to the workplace ramifications of HIV/AIDS.

Slack offers concrete examples of HIV/AIDS workplace plans and details the issues of reasonable accommodation and undue hardship as applied to HIV/AIDS in the workplace. The book makes specific recommendations about how management must empower itself to accept the primary responsibility for finding solutions to workplace ramifications of HIV/AIDS, It also suggests concrete ways in which the federal government can assist.

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