Employer requesting medical history

bex2012

Nope, no time off sick. Its not just her, its the whole team (30+ cleaners). I could understand it if it was just her, and she'd had loads of sick leave, but she hasnt.

rochja

This one needs a little research about the Equality Act 2010. Apparently, employers are no longer able to issue applicants with pre-employment health questionnaires,
except in essential cases, as part of the recruitment process. In their place, employers should invite prospective employees to make a declaration of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ against two statements which will be included as part of the letter issued by HR outlining their conditional offer of appointment.
These statements are as follows:
1. I am not aware of any health conditions or disability which might impair my ability to undertake effectively the duties of the position which I have been offered.
2. I do have a health condition or disability which might affect my work and which might require special adjustments to my work or at my place of work.
If this is the limit on pre-employment checks I would have thought the post employment limit would be similar, but I am not wading right through the Act to find out. I would think your mum is legally water-tight if she just writes statement one on the form. If she is not happy to do that without further research then happy hunting

ValHaller

bex2012 wrote: »

Yes, from what I understand is the forms arrived today, and they must be filled in by tomorrow. Why can they insist? (not being sarcastic, im genuinely interested).

Anyone can ask for anything. They can insist on anything. It is just the way things are. They can even give you forms to fill in.

But not everyone gets everything they ask for or insist upon. To insist means to be firm in a demand. If you are equally firm in a refusal, they don't get what they insist upon.

People use this terminology 'Can they ask for ... ?' 'They can insist on .... ' when they actually mean 'Can they enforce their will?'. It irritates me no end, because sometimes someone says 'can I ask for ....?' and they get the answer 'No you cannot ask for ... ' when the truth is that they can ask for it - and might even get it - although they have no right to it. But if they don't ask they don't get.

This way of speaking is so disempowering, particulalrly in the situation you find yourself in.

Rylynn

It seems a rather strange request of employees who have been there for over a year like your mother appears to have been. I wonder if there is someone they want rid of on this team of 30, but rather than single one person out they are asking all staff.

bex2012

rochja wrote: »

This one needs a little research about the Equality Act 2010. Apparently, employers are no longer able to issue applicants with pre-employment health questionnaires,
except in essential cases, as part of the recruitment process. In their place, employers should invite prospective employees to make a declaration of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ against two statements which will be included as part of the letter issued by HR outlining their conditional offer of appointment.
These statements are as follows:
1. I am not aware of any health conditions or disability which might impair my ability to undertake effectively the duties of the position which I have been offered.
2. I do have a health condition or disability which might affect my work and which might require special adjustments to my work or at my place of work.
If this is the limit on pre-employment checks I would have thought the post employment limit would be similar, but I am not wading right through the Act to find out. I would think your mum is legally water-tight if she just writes statement one on the form. If she is not happy to do that without further research then happy hunting

Thank you, but Mum (and most of her team) have been there 20+ years, and have been TUPE'd over from contract to contract several times. They are half-way through a 3 year contract with this new FM firm, so they arent new employees. I'll have a look at the Equality Act & see if it says anything.

Rylynn

If your mother and the others were TUPE's across surely they are on the same terms and conditions they has with the last company, so why would this one suddenly request this information 15 months after the event? Or is there a time limit on when they can ask for new details following TUPE?

Are there any thoughts that this company wish to make some staff cuts?

bex2012

Thats what I thought too. I know your previous contractual rights has to stand for a year after TUPE (Ive probably not worded that right, but hopefully you get the gist of what I mean). Ive always thought that if they then want to change your contract after that, they can, but there must be a consultation process. Not that there is anything to change, they seem to be on the absolute minimum of stuff anyway.

Just found this:
Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 restricts the circumstances in which an employer can ask questions about a prospective employee's health prior to offering him or her a job or including him or her in a pool or shortlist to be offered work. Employers may ask health-related questions for the purposes of:

• establishing whether or not reasonable adjustments are necessary to the assessment process;
• establishing whether or not the applicant can carry out a function intrinsic to the work concerned;
• taking positive action in relation to disabled people;
• establishing whether or not the applicant has a particular disability that is a requirement for the job; or
• the employer's diversity monitoring.

Think I'll be telling Mum to tell them to sling their hook

Rylynn

I would also tell your mum to ask why they want this information. Or she can simply ignore the request.

Mistral001

The Op needs, in my view, to go back and ask what the employer said exactly about filling in this form. That is important. There are several posts on this forum from friends and relatives getting upset about employers asking for medical history on said friends and relative. There seem to be fairly few posts from people who have been asked to fill them in themselves, which makes me think that something gets lost in the translation.

rochja

Section 60 is what I was referring to. Trouble is it talks about prospective employers. I presume existing employers have the same rights but this paragraph is not definitive