The HIV/Aids pandemic has severely hit sectors such as mining, manufacturing and transport and storage.

These sectors are the worst hit, according to a survey released by the South African Business Coalition on HIV and Aids (SABCOHA) yesterday, to mark today's commemoration of World Aids Day.

However, these are also the sectors that have the most comprehensive plans in place to deal with the pandemic, indicating that as the disease's prevalence matures, so too do workplace plans.

Companies in these sectors reported that profit was been affected by as much as five per cent, and this trend is going to worsen in the future.

Some 55% of mines, 46% of the transport companies, and 38% of the manufacturers surveyed reported that profitability has already been adversely affected by HIV/Aids.

Despite this, most of these companies indicated that impact on profits had been small, being between 0% and 2,5%.

Profitability in the retail, wholesale, motor trade and building and construction sectors appear to be relatively less affected, but respondents in all eight sectors expect the impact of the epidemic to escalate over the next five years.

Some 40% of manufacturers and transport companies and 60% of mines that responded to the questionnaire indicated that the virus has led to a loss of experience and vital skills in their companies.

Mines, manufacturers and transport companies are more alarmed by the impact of HIV/Aids on their staff and the resultant effect on productions costs.

However, firms in the financial services sector are more concerned about the impact on their client base and on the JSE-listed companies in which they invest.

Looking at the issue of production costs, companies cite lowered productivity and greater absenteeism as the worst results of the disease.

This is followed by increased employee benefit costs.

A number of companies are also experiencing higher labour-turnover rates, lost experience and skills and higher recruitment and training costs owing to the epidemic.

According to SABCOHA CEO Brad Mears survey results indicated that companies that employ mostly semiskilled and unskilled workers have been the worst affected.

“Whereas more than 50% of the companies that employ predominantly semi and unskilled workers indicated that HIV/Aids has led to lower labour productivity or increased absenteeism, less than 15% of companies with mainly highly skilled employees reported that HIV/Aids has had these impacts.”

This seems to indicate that the results support demographic estimates that suggest that HIV prevalence is higher among semiskilled and unskilled workers than it is among skilled and highly-skilled workers.

Lamentably, industrial sectors such as building and construction, retail and wholesale have shown a slow response to the pandemic.

In addition to these findings, the annual survey found that smaller firms respond more slowly when compared to large companies, which generally have plans in place.

However, supply-chain initiatives by firms such as Volkswagen, Eskom and Daimler Chrysler South Africa will soon benefit the smaller firms that leave Antiretroviral provision up to larger firms and government owing to misconstruing their role in this area.

The survey was conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) between July and September among firms in eight economic sectors.

These sectors are mining, manufacturing, transport and storage, retail, wholesale, motor trade, building and construction as well as financial services sectors.

Some 1 032 companies participated in the survey, making it the largest survey on the impact of HIV/Aids on business in South Africa.