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Equality Act impact on Pre-emplyment
Wednesday, 06 October 2010
Equality Act
The new Equality Act appears at first glance to outlaw pre-employment questionnaires but in fact if you research the ACT you will find that a pre-employment questionnaire can be replaced by an employment questionnaire, the difference being that you must first have offered the position to someone without taking into account any pre-existing medical conditions. However having offered them the job there is nothing to stop you undertaking an employment questionnaire or medical to ensure that the employee is fit for the role on offer. If you then discover that a pre-existing medical condition would stop the employee from carrying out the role and you are unable to make any adjustments to enable them to undertake the job then you can withdraw the employment offer.
It is worth bearing in mind that of course the fitness of an individual to do a job may also impact on the people working around them as their inability to carry out the role may impact upon the health and safety of the other workers. Even with considerable adjustments if there is still a potential problem to the health and safety and wellbeing of other employees then you have grounds with which to withdraw the offer of employment.
At present the ACT is very loose in defining what is acceptable and what isn’t, and there will no doubt be a test case to determine how far the ACT can be interpreted, but in the mean time the above principle is what is considered acceptable at present and in due course all pre-employment questionnaires will become New-employee questionnaires.
