[Press release: Can a Texas employer discriminate against employees who are HIV-infected?] Page: 1 of 4
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NEWSRELAASE I ETO V. C.LA ICTh r
E7'/L.
Februaty7,1989 For Immediate Release
For more information, contact: David A Bryan, Legal Director
Texas Human Rights Foundation
512/479-8473
Can a Texas Employer Discriminate Against
Employees Who Are HIV-Infected?
Cut to In t sate isty Statute
/ If Texas Human Rights Foundation Helps Fund Case
The Texas Human Rights Foundation (THRF) is helping to fund an AIDS
discrimination case which will answer the question- Is AIDS a disability under
Texas law? Austin attorney, Philip Durst, of Richards, Wiseman & Durst is
representing the plaintiff, Gilbert Nieto, in the suit against his former
employer, the Austin law firm of Clark, Thomas, Winters & Newton.
The suit alleges that Clark, Thomas eal. wrongfully fired Nieto, an employee
of two years, in August of 1987 because of his HIV-positivity. The case will
determine if such a dismissal constitutes a violation of the Texas Commission
on Human Rights Act which bars employers from discrimination based on
handicap. "Clark, Thomas has taken about the most restrictive reading
possible as to who is protected by the handicap statute,"stated David Bryan,
THRF Legal Director. "Under their view of the law, any employer could fire an
HIV-positive individual, even if that person is asymptomatic and fully capable
of working. In addition, such a firing could terminate, as in Mr. Nieto's case,
the employee's group health insurance coverage."
Initially, Nieto filed a complaint against Clar, Thomas with the Austin
Human Rights Commission seeking a ruling based on the Austin AIDS Anti-
Discrimination Ordinance. The Commission ruled in his favor and gave him-more-
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Texas Human Rights Foundation. [Press release: Can a Texas employer discriminate against employees who are HIV-infected?], text, February 7, 1989; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc916013/m1/1/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.