illegal job questions

Googlewhacker

Ihatecameron wrote: »

Generally people only apply for jobs they can do so you shouldn't really be in that situation.

Not always though otherwise you wouldn't use the word generally and you CAN ask health related questions that may affect the job.

i.e you can ask about back problems if the job requires heavy lifting

Ihatecameron

Googlewhacker wrote: »

Not always though otherwise you wouldn't use the word generally and you CAN ask health related questions that may affect the job.

i.e you can ask about back problems if the job requires heavy lifting

You can ask if you like but if you meet someone who is a bit savvy on the law, you could find yourself paying compensation.

SandP_2

Don't want to re-open a whole can of worms but just thought the wording on this was interesting.

Met up with a large HR employment agency the other day. On their registration forms their take on Criminal Convictions is -

"Have you any convictions that are relevant to this post?"

Except for the blindingly obvious roles (contact with children, fraud vs accountancy roles), I can't see how this question is beneficial in anyway. There just seem to be too many loopholes in it?

Ihatecameron

"Have you any convictions that are relevant to this post?"

I can't see the point either, as you say. If a company needs info like that then they should ask for CRB.

Googlewhacker

Ihatecameron wrote: »

You can ask if you like but if you meet someone who is a bit savvy on the law, you could find yourself paying compensation.

There is nothing wrong with asking questions that relate to the job, they can be the most law savvy they want but as long as the questions are in direct relation to the ability of doing the job then there will be no reprocussions

Ihatecameron

You are not supposed to ask any health related questions until you offer them the job, and trying to get round this by saying they were in relation to ones ability to do the job amounts to the same thing.

SandP_2

Just to put the health related questions issue to bed. The following is extracted from the ACAS guide to The Equality Act (my italics) –



“The Equality Act limits the circumstances when you can ask health-related questions before you have offered the individual a job. Up to this point, you can only ask health-related questions to help you to:

• decide whether you need to make any reasonable adjustments for the person to the selection process
• decide whether an applicant can carry out a function that is essential (‘intrinsic’) to the job

[ACAS example] – a newspaper has a job that requires a lot of heavy manual handling, you can ask a candidate with a mobility impairment whether they could manage handling heavy goods. However, the newspaper would not be able to ask the person how their impairment would affect them in getting to the workplace, because this is not something that is intrinsic to the job itself.

[........................ other instances not relevant to this discussion .................]

Once a person has passed the interview and you have offered them a job (whether this is an unconditional or conditional job offer) you are permitted to ask appropriate health-related questions."

Googlewhacker

Ihatecameron wrote: »

You are not supposed to ask any health related questions until you offer them the job, and trying to get round this by saying they were in relation to ones ability to do the job amounts to the same thing.

I'm afraid you are wrong, see the ACAS clip from above.