Pre employment health check

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[Deleted User]
[Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
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in Employment, jobseeking & training
My wife has just returned to work after being off for 3 months with stress. A few days ago she was approached directly by a recruiter with a role she is very interested in and has since secured an interview. A firend of hers took a job with the same company earlier in the year and confirmed that her conditional offer was subject to some pre employment checks which included a health questionnaire asking about sick days in the last 12 months and the reason. My wife is now thinking about pulling out as she thinks the likelihood is any job offer would be withdrawn once the health questionnaire is completed (truthfully). I'm thinking this may be seen as discriminatory but at the same time they may say the pre employment checks weren't "satisfactory". It's difficult to know what to advise so just wondered if anyone has had a similar experience? I should add further roles might be available next year so one option is to withdraw and wait until then.

Thanks

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  • sangie595
    sangie595 Posts: 6,092 Forumite
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    Three months of sickness for stress isn't a disability- no discrimination. It often depends why someone was stressed. If it's a one off and unlikely to be repeated, many employers will discount it as everyone has bad times or unexpected illness at some time.
  • nicechap
    nicechap Posts: 2,852 Forumite
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    Deleted_User wrote: »
    My wife has just returned to work after being off for 3 months with stress. A few days ago she was approached directly by a recruiter with a role she is very interested in and has since secured an interview. A firend of hers took a job with the same company earlier in the year and confirmed that her conditional offer was subject to some pre employment checks which included a health questionnaire asking about sick days in the last 12 months and the reason. My wife is now thinking about pulling out as she thinks the likelihood is any job offer would be withdrawn once the health questionnaire is completed (truthfully). I'm thinking this may be seen as discriminatory but at the same time they may say the pre employment checks weren't "satisfactory". It's difficult to know what to advise so just wondered if anyone has had a similar experience? I should add further roles might be available next year so one option is to withdraw and wait until then.

    Thanks

    If your wife pulls out of the application process she will not get the new role.

    If your wife likes the look of the new role, and can cope with potential rejection (she might fail interview as opposed to health checks), then she should continue to apply for it, and if asked, explain the period of absence.

    Alternatively wait another 12 months until she has 12 months sick free but there's no guarantee the job will be there or she will successful.
    Originally Posted by shortcrust
    "Contact the Ministry of Fairness....If sufficient evidence of unfairness is discovered you’ll get an apology, a permanent contract with backdated benefits, a ‘Let’s Make it Fair!’ tshirt and mug, and those guilty of unfairness will be sent on a Fairness Awareness course."
  • Undervalued
    Undervalued Posts: 8,852 Forumite
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    Deleted_User wrote: »
    My wife has just returned to work after being off for 3 months with stress. A few days ago she was approached directly by a recruiter with a role she is very interested in and has since secured an interview. A firend of hers took a job with the same company earlier in the year and confirmed that her conditional offer was subject to some pre employment checks which included a health questionnaire asking about sick days in the last 12 months and the reason. My wife is now thinking about pulling out as she thinks the likelihood is any job offer would be withdrawn once the health questionnaire is completed (truthfully). I'm thinking this may be seen as discriminatory but at the same time they may say the pre employment checks weren't "satisfactory". It's difficult to know what to advise so just wondered if anyone has had a similar experience? I should add further roles might be available next year so one option is to withdraw and wait until then.

    Thanks

    You are thinking wrong for the reasons that have been explained by the previous posters!

    "Discrimination" seems to be one of the most overused and misunderstood words these days. If you think about it, just about everything to do with selecting employees, deciding who to promote etc etc is "discrimination" in that you are choosing one person over another by a set of criteria that you decide to apply. There are a few criteria that are prohibited by law such as race, religion, sexual orientation and (in most cases) gender etc but apart from those an employer can discriminate in any way they please.

    Even in the case of disability (which wouldn't apply in your wife's case based on what you have posted) an employer is only required to make "reasonable adjustments". If those adjustments would allow the person to properly do the job then the employer must not discriminate because of the disability. However if adjustments beyond "reasonable" are required then they are quite entitled to "discriminate" against the disabled person.
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