Atypical & Flexible Working
Background
The Equality Act 2010 (“the EqA”) has introduced a more regulated approach to the questions that an employer can ask about health, and when such questions can be asked. This is intended to curb the failure of disabled job applicants to reach interview and to encourage disabled people to apply for jobs.
Prohibited pre-employment health questions
The EqA provides that, other than in specified circumstances, an employer must not ask a job applicant a question about his/her health:
- before offering work to the applicant, or
- where the employer is not in a position to offer work, before including the applicant in a pool from which the employer eventually intends to select a person to whom to offer work.
The effect of this provision is that, except in certain specified situations, an employer must not ask about a job applicant’s health until that person has either been offered a job (on a conditional or unconditional basis) or been included in a pool of successful candidates to be offered a job when a suitable position arises.