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Posted By Ruth Price
Pls could someone give me legal justification for screening all new employees via a pre-employment medical questionnaire that is then passed to a qualified OH Physician/nurse? The questionnaire is entirely confidential and helps to assist in determining suitability where pre-exisiting conditions are present.
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Posted By Bob Matthews AIIRSM
Ruth,
We insist on pre employment medicals here and also manual handling courses etc, primarily due to the number of claims we used to get.It was difficult to determine whether the claim was due to work or pre existing problems. Now we can weed out any with pre existing problems. This does not stop them being employed by us but we can ensure the employee is safe from anything he/she may come into contact with. I guess this comes under the H&SAWA. All our medicals and questionaires are completed by the occ nurse. I don't know if this is any use to you
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Posted By Laurie
Ruth
Agree with what Bob says, but be careful not to reject someone simply because of their medical condition - the Disability Discrimination Act may apply - it doesn't just apply to mobility or sensory impairment
Laurie
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Posted By Ruth Price
Thanks for the feedback; however, what I am looking for is a justification I can use to the finance/commercial types for continuing to use our current system. As an HR Manager, I am aware of the DDA etc and want to continue with my current use of a pre-employment questionnaire; however, as we outsource our OH provision, it is seen as a costly and unnecessary drain on resources!!! Where does it say in HASAWA or any of the regs/ACOPs/guidance that this is the best method of determing the health of potential employees?
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Posted By Paul Adams
HS(G)61 Health Surveillance at Work should provide the ammunition you need, together with Management Regs and a statement from your insurers would probably go a long way too.
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Posted By Chris Pollington
Hi Ruth,
We also have an outsourced OH system. I would suggest that by pre-employment screening you pick up on those who you may owe a greater duty of care to, such as those who have pre-existing problems. This would allow you then to carefully select the tasks they perform to keep them safe, this allows you to stay on the right side of H&S law but also make any reasonable changes for the DDA as well. In our experience the savings in getting people back to work far outweigh the costs of the service, maybe this is an angle you could try with your number crunchers.
Hope that helps
Chris.
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Posted By Adam Dickson Ewens Burns
Ruth I can only support what has been said and would reiterate about weeding out problems. Only yesterday a DEAF person who applied for a telephone operators job WON at an IT because he did not get the job and they did not do enough to reduce the telephone work and increase the filing aspects. Awarded £7000. Good Luck
Adam
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