The AIDS crisis presents many difficult issues for employers and employees. Addressing those issues in a handbook, however, is virtually impossible. Once more, employee handbooks are most useful when they describe policies of general application. An employer would be hard pressed to draft an AIDS policy that fell into this category. Accordingly, it is extremely rare to see employee handbooks that contain provisions regarding AIDS.

Of course, in some workplaces, such as hospitals, AIDS is an occupational exposure hazard. In those workplaces, employers must have specific post-exposure management policies, but even these policies are not usually contained in an employee handbook because only certain workers have exposure risks. In short, current research indicates that HIV (the virus that leads to AIDS) is transmitted from one person to another by direct exposure to infected fluid (such as blood) which comes into contact with the exposed person's blood system. This is a not a significant risk for the overwhelming majority of employees.

An employer should, therefore, include a handbook policy on AIDS only if there is a specific issue or clearly identified risk that the employer would like to address concerning AIDS. Regardless, employers must take care when drafting an AIDS policy, as one can easily run afoul of the Americans With Disabilities Act (or comparable state law) when drafting or implementing a workplace policy on AIDS.

A more pragmatic alternative to a handbook policy on AIDS would be to make available to employees one of the many published pamphlets on AIDS in the workplace.