Accessing health information, Part 1

Part 1: Should pre-employment health screening be prohibited until the job-offer stage?

Summary:

John Ballard examines a law in the US that prohibits pre-employment health enquiries until the conditional job offer stage and considers its relevance for the UK.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT health screening is a popular tool used by many employers to assess the fitness of prospective employees. However, a recent survey by OH at Work revealed considerable variation in the manner in which such assessments are conducted, the timing at which they take place and the ‘job-relatedness’ of the evaluation^1,2. Arguably, pre-employment health screening carried out during the recruitment process, but before a conditional job.…

John Ballard is editor of Occupational Health [at Work].

Author: Ballard J

Tags disability international pre-employment screening

Occupational Health at Work October/November 2007 (vol. 04/3) pp29-33

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